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V 











The Romance of Right Living 


By AMOS R. WELLS 

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> The 

"Romance of ‘Right Living 



AMOS R. WELLS 


Author of “ Bible Miniatures 11 A Cyclopedia of 
Twentieth Century Illustrations ” etc. 



* 


» > > 


9 

9 


* 

> 


N ew Y o r k Chicago 

FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 

London and Edinburgh 












Copyright, 1923, by 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 




©Cl A 711252 

New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. 
London: 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street 

JUL19 ’23 


1 


PREFACE 


T HE purpose of these chapters is to illus¬ 
trate the joyous and adventurous side of 
Christianity. “ Dim Defiles ” is the key- 
essay of the hook. I have tried to make every page 
in this volume shine with the splendour of Chris¬ 
tian optimism. Ho knight of old set forth on any 
quest more gallantly and happily than the most 
ordinary follower of Jesus Christ may enter the 
most ordinary day and attempt the most ordinary 
task. If the knight had a king for his comrade, so 
may we have, and the King of kings. If the Holy 
Grail was his goal, or a ransomed Holy Land, we 
may find a Holy Land in our village, and receive 
from the Saviour’s hand the Holy Grail in blessed 
communion at the close of each day’s toil. Hid¬ 
den in all common experiences may be exquisite 
surprises and amazing rewards. As we turn the 
next comer we may see the world at our feet. 

There is no prose in right living; it is all poetry. 

» 

You do not believe it? Then read my book! 

Amos R. Wells. 


Auburhdale, Massachusetts. 




Contents 


I. 

Dim Defiles .... 

• 

9 

II. 

Ourselves from New Angles 

• 

14 

III. 

The Duty that Does Not Appeal 
to Us. 

19 

IV. 

Keeping on the Right Side of 
Others .... 

• 

24 

V. 

The Road to Failure 

• 

28 

VI. 

The Duty of Being Pleasant 

• 

32 

VII. 

Prayer and Temptation 

• 

37 

VIII. 

Pretences that Pay 

• 

41 

IX. 

Life’s Proud Prospectuses . 

• 

46 

X. 

Holy Health .... 

• 

50 

XI. 

How to Work .... 

• 

54 

XII. 

Christian Philanthropy 

• 

59 

XIII. 

On Having a Good Time 

• 

64 

XIV. 

Bible-Saturated Men 

• 

68 

XV. 

The Blessedness of Books . 

• 

72 

XVI. 

Marked Up .... 

• 

76 

XVII. 

Our Wills and God’s Ways . 

• 

81 

XVIII. 

The Art of Eating Together 

• 

86 

XIX. 

All Sorts. 

• 

91 

XX. 

Choice Seats .... 

• 

95 



8 


CONTENTS 


XXI. 
XXII. 
XXIII. 
XXIV. 
XXV. 
XXVI. 
XXVII. 
XXVIII. 
XXIX. 
„ XXX. 
XXXI. 
XXXII. 
XXXIII. 
XXXIV. 

XXXV. 

XXXVI. 

XXXVII. 

XXXVIII. 

XXXIX. 

XL. 


All Things New .... 99 

Precious Tact .104 

Ability to Work with Others . 109 

Open Gates .113 

Ready! .118 

The Tyranny of Trifles . .122 

How is Your Head Set On? . . 126 

Hack Work.130 

Given to God .135 

Thank You! .139 

The Way that Has Its Way . . 144 

Overcoming Our Prejudices . 149 
Facing a Hard Task . . .154 


When People Took Time for Real 
Letter Writing . . .158 

Your Own Slogans .... 162 

Mind Switches .167 

The Duty of Feeling Fit . .172 

Speaking Appreciatively . .177 

The Art of Making Friends . 182 


Knowing When We Have Arrived 186 


I 


DIM DEFILES 


/TT\ HE accompanying rhyme was sent out as 

1 " a New Year’s card to some of my friends, 

among them an editor, who Straightway 
asked me to expand the thought into a New Year’s 
message. This I did gladly, because I believe that 
romance is possible for all lives but attained by 
very few, and that attaining it is one of the chief 
secrets of happy and useful living. [And it will be 
noted that the blank in the rhyme may be con¬ 
veniently filled by “ fourth,” “ fifth,” “ sixth,” or 
what you will.] 


May the twenty—th year of the twentieth century 
Be for my friends a trifle adventure-y, 

Blest with adventures in lands of the soul. 

Out where the rivers of happiness roll, 

Out amid marvels of joy and surprise 
Sprung from the earth and flung down from the skies 
In the brightening lands where all blessedness dwells: 
This is the greeting of 

Amos R. Wells. 


I have always been enamoured of the words “ dim 
defiles.” I do not quite know w T hat a defile is, and 
do not intend ever to look it up in the dictionary, 
thus removing from it the delightful sense of mys¬ 
tery which it now possesses for me. The words 

9 



10 THE ROMANGE OE RIGHT LIVING 


always bring up memories of “ Ivanboe ” and “ The 
Talisman ” and “ Tbe Conquest of Granada.” 
They show me a troop of gallant knights, their 
horses stepping proudly, their shields and spears 
and armour glittering in the bright sunshine, their 
banners waving in the breeze. And slowly the 
splendid cavalcade wends its way down a dim de¬ 
file. The shadows engulf it, and every nerve of my 
mind quivers in anticipation of the deeds of valour 
and the glorious adventures that await those knights. 
Anything that is heroic and satisfying may happen 
in a dim defile. 

Well, how about the dim defile of a day? Is 
anything more mysterious than the next twelve 
hours after sunrise ? What awaits us in those rocky 
corridors of time? Robbers lie in ambush there, 
caves of treasure are to be discovered there, steep 
paths lead upward to lordly castles, dragons bar the 
way, storms are hiding among the mountains, flow¬ 
ers are hiding among the mosses. Perils the most 
appalling, opportunities the most stimulating, re¬ 
wards the most satisfying, all these are within the 
possibilities of those twelve hours. 

I like to think, before rising from my bed, about 
some of the adventures that may befall me during 
the day on which I am entering. I may meet a new 
and splendid friend. I may have some new vision 
of my work. I may at last place forever under my 
feet some long-victorious temptation. I may get 
a new grip on life. I may open up a new book or 


DIM DEFILES 


11 


discover a new strength, and beauty in the old Book. 
I may undertake some fine task that I have never 
dared to attempt before. I may enter upon a won¬ 
derful new path that will lead me to a marvelous 
realm of enjoyment and achievement. Some of 
these hopes become concrete in my mind. I can¬ 
not wait an instant longer to realize them, and I 
leap from my bed into eager activity. 

What is true of a day is true of a year of days. 
Once catch the spirit of romance and nothing can 
be dull. Romance is not in things but in soul. Ad¬ 
ventures lie in the adventurer, not in his surround¬ 
ings. Ho Graustark is more crowded with exciting 
events than the twelve months of any year will be 
to any daring and enterprising spirit. 

A friend of mine, a world traveler, a well-known 
newspaper correspondent, advised me the other day 
to get out of my shell, to make a break, to do some¬ 
thing different. He was just back from doing some¬ 
thing different—in Arabia, in Egypt, in China, in 
France, in no end of places and ways. I meekly 
accepted his gallant advice, and did not dare or care 
to disclose my own adventures in the dim defiles of 
my Boston days. Probably he would not have be¬ 
lieved me. My voyages of exploration, my cam¬ 
paigns, my combats, my dashes into the unknown 
and the mysterious, have no connection with rail¬ 
ways and steamboats and automobiles and airships. 
They do not stand out in relief to the eye, but only 
to the adventurous heart. 


12 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


Nevertheless they are real. They are the most 
real things in the world. They will be written in 
enduring annals after most wars and journeys and 
vast material enterprises are quite forgotten. For 
they take firm hold on eternity. 

Yes, there will be dim defiles in the eternal world. 
All earth’s rock will crumble, earth’s geography be 
quite obliterated, even the memory of earth’s ad¬ 
ventures be swallowed in oblivion, but the heavenly 
adventures will be ever more interesting and vital 

with the passing eons. There is no monotony in 

* 

heaven, nor is there the least dull shadow of 
monotony in the heavenly life on earth. 

Therefore let us determine to explore in knightly 
and spirited fashion the dim defiles of this present 
year. Let us set forth with the zest of Roosevelt 
when he went to South America, of Livingstone 
when he threaded the dark forests of Africa, of 
Columbus when he turned the prow of his vessel 
westward. To-day is our Eldorado. To-day is our 
Klondike. In To-day is our Golden Fleece. In 
To-day is the Holy Grail. “ After it, follow it, fol¬ 
low the Gleam! ” 

Our adventures will begin at once, and just where 
we are. As soon as we realize that romance mate¬ 
rial is in all places and all times and for every soul, 
the web of romance begins to spin around us. God 
never designed a humdrum life. God is the great 
Romancer, the infinite Pioneer. “ Follow me,” He 
cries, “ into the dim defiles. Eye has not seen the 


DIM DEFILES 


13 


glories and beauties you will bebold. Ear has not 
beard tbe strains of exalted music that will burst 
upon you. The mind of man has not conceived the 
wonders that you will discover. Follow me, for I 
am the Way into the Abundant Life.” 


II 


OURSELVES FROM NEW ANGLES 


O NE of life’s most striking experiences ia 
the getting of the first view of ourselves 
from an unaccustomed viewpoint. We 
-see in our mirrors our front faces and a little far¬ 
ther down; that is all the majority of us know 
about our appearance for many years. Then we 
have a photograph taken showing our side face, or 
we happen to use in a clothing store several mir-- 
rors at an angle, and for the first time we see our¬ 
selves as others see us, from top to toe and all 
* around. 

Seldom do we find ourselves looking as we had 
thought we looked. Usually our appearance from 
these new angles leaves much to be desired. We 
become conscious of a receding chin, a turned-up 
nose, awkward legs, stooped shoulders. We dis¬ 
cover w T rinkles of which we had been ignorant. We 
wish that we had not made these disagreeable dis¬ 
coveries. Perhaps we square our shoulders and 
determine stoutly that we will improve the view 
of ourselves at the new angle, and make it as pleas¬ 
ing as we have come to consider our front faces. 

14 


OURSELVES FROM NEW ANGLES 15 


Properly used, the experience becomes an important 
factor in onr self-education. 

Now what happens so helpfully in the matter of 
our transient bodies, ought to he brought about for 
our immortal souls. It is not so easy, however, to 
see our characters from new angles. They cannot 
he photographed. There are no mirrors to show 
their sides and backs and full lengths. We must go 
at the problem with greater painstaking. 

Friendly criticism furnishes one of the best ways 
of seeing our character from an unfamiliar angle. 
If you have a friend who is sympathetic and lov¬ 
ing and at the same time perfectly frank and cour¬ 
ageous, count him among the most precious gifts of 
heaven. To be sure, any honest and discerning 
criticism is of immense value, even though it come 
from a bitter enemy; but perhaps it is asking too 
much of human nature to expect one to receive 
such strictures. Out of the mouth of a proved 
friend, however, they should be more than welcome. 
It is the height of folly to reject them petulantly, 
as we so often do. We will rather invite them, if 
we are wise; and if we have no such friend, we 
shall make it a principal aim of life to get one. 
The ideal giver of such advice will be a father or 
mother, sister or brother, husband or wife or child. 
They will shrink from giving it, the gift will cost 
real heroism; let us accept it with a grateful warmth 
that will dissolve their reluctance, and let us act 
upon it with absolute assurance of its worth. 


16 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


We may also view ourselves at a new angle 
through a new experience. Here comes in one great 
advantage of travel, which discloses to the sagacious 
traveler as much of the unknown continent of his 
character as of the novel material scenes through 
which he passes. A change of occupation will show 
us much of ourselves that we had not dreamed of, 
much of weakness and also much of strength. Best 
of all, and fortunately easiest of all, we come to 
know ourselves better through new tasks. We can 
enter upon these at our will, some needed service 
of God and man which will make fresh demands 
upon us, bring out unsuspected powers, and also 
throw us back upon God by the revealing of many 
mental and spiritual shortcomings from which we 
had fondly imagined ourselves to be free. It is well 
often to branch out into novel work for the work’s 
sake, hut quite as much for the sake of ourselves. 

The Bible furnishes still another mirror in which 
we may see ourselves from new angles. As we read 
its searching pages we begin to see our faults very 
clearly. What it holds up as the ideal course of 
action we perceive to be very different from our 
daily lives. The purity which it recommends, the 
heroism it praises, seem very far from us. Every 
new book, every new chapter, shows us life from a 
new angle, and so shows us our lives from new an¬ 
gles. We see ourselves, not as others see us, but 
as God must see us; and that is the deepest self¬ 
revelation. 


OURSELVES FROM NEW ANGLES 17 


Prayer is a wonderful help, if we would get new 
views of our real selves. Prayer is the great con- 
Science-clearer. Prayer is the stern duty-enforcer. 
Prayer is the sweet consoler, the glorious strength- 
ener. Prayer is unmerciful in its pictures of our¬ 
selves as we are and as we ought to be, wholly mer¬ 
ciful in its picture of a merciful, empowering God. 
Prayer is the influence of the Holy Spirit, the 
Teacher, who not only takes of the things of Christ 
and shows them to us, hut in that light shows us our¬ 
selves, disconcertingly our real selves, encouragingly 
our possible selves. 

A beautiful mirror in which we see ourselves at 
new angles is a noble example. “ Comparisons are 
odious ” is a false proverb; to the sensible man com¬ 
parisons are the essence of wisdom. By comparing 
ourselves with those who are better, wiser, stronger, 
more skillful than we are, we begin to get a just 
estimate of ourselves, and that understanding is 
the basis of betterment. 

If this is true of mere human examples, it is con¬ 
spicuously true of the Great Example. Jesus is the 
living Image of a perfect life. He is “ the crystal 
Christ,” the flawless One of Lanier’s poem. View¬ 
ing the matchless portrait in the four Gospels, we 
hang our heads with shame at our own ugliness. 
Viewing it still more intently, we stand proudly 
upright again, for He has called us brothers, He has 
said that His Father is our Father, and that He, 


18 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


with all His perfections, will come and dwell in 
us. 

This, this is the climax of our pursuit of self- 
knowledge. We have looked in many mirrors, have 
seen ourselves from many angles. Now we look into 
the perfect mirror; and seeing in that mirror the 
glory of Christ, we “ are transformed into the same 
image, from glory to glory.” We have become like 
Him, for we have seen Him as He is. 


Ill 


THE DUTY THAT DOES HOT 
APPEAL TO US 

W HEH I was in college my professor of 
ethics made much of the age-long prob¬ 
lem, whether happiness or duty should 
be supreme among human pursuits. He argued 
for happiness, and I, with the idealism of youth, 
for duty, and many were the bouts we had in that 
small classroom. 

Of course we were both wrong, and both right. 

Of course the perfect observance of duty is the 

supreme enjoyment of happiness. And of course, 

in our imperfect humanity, while we instinctively 

seek happiness we consciously seek duty. 

The question that troubles many is, Should we 

not instinctively prefer duty? Should not duty 

always appeal to us, always allure us, as a prospect 

of perfect happiness, of solid bliss ? Should we be 

obliged so often to force ourselves into duty-doing? 

Many sensitive consciences are anxious about this. 

It is right to think about it, because there is 

really no keener test of our characters than the 

things we long for. But we must take ourselves 

as we are, with all our inherited faultiness and sin- 

19 


20 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


fulness, and be satisfied if on the whole we are 
growing wiser and stronger, with a deeper longing 
for God’s approval, a more constant pleasure in 
duty-doing, and a saner appraisal of the hollow¬ 
ness of temporary enjoyment. If every year duty 
becomes easier and happier, and the trivialities of 
life weigh less with us, we have no ground for 
anxiety. 

Even if duty does not always appeal to us, a 
great point is gained when we recognize it as duty. 
A spendthrift who keeps accounts is not hopeless. 
Perceiving God’s will is far from doing it, but it 
is at least the first step toward doing it. 

And certainly if, perceiving God’s will, we go on 
and do it even though we must force our own wills 
in order to do it, we have taken a long second step. 
Going to church from a sense of duty is a cold and 
barren act compared with church attendance from 
love of God’s house, but it puts us in the way of 
getting that love, of going to church because we 
long for the courts of the Lord as David did. Giv¬ 
ing from a sense of duty counts little: “ The gift 
without the giver is bare ”; but many a duty gift 
has kindled a fire in a frozen heart and made real 
generosity possible. 

It all depends on whether we know ourselves or 
not, whether we perceive the partial nature of our 
duty and are dissatisfied with it, or are blind to 
its inadequacy and rest content in it, even become 
proud of it. That is what was the matter with the 


DUTY THAT DOES NOT APPEAL 21 


Pharisee. His long prayers, even on the street cor¬ 
ners, were not wrong; neither was his scrupulous 
temple-going; neither was his tithing. All of this 
was on the way toward right, provided he had not 
made up his mind that he had already arrived, and 
thanked God for it. 

But is it too much to say that for the majority 
of persons it suffices that a duty does not appeal to 
them, and they will have none of it ? At any rate, 
this is true of a vast number. “ I don’t care for 
that sort of thing,” and the question of prayer¬ 
meeting attendance is settled in the negative. “ I 
never was much of a hand for the Sunday School,” 
and Christian education is thrown out of court. 
“ The church ? Well, some way, it doesn’t appeal 
to me,” and they take no more thought about church 
membership. 

The immense egotism of this is as absurd as is 
its futility. As well might a man turn his back 
on Niagara and say, “ Some way, you know, I never 
did fancy water falls.” As well might a man yawn 
through a symphony orchestra concert, and at the 
end explain, “ Beally, Beethoven never did appeal 
to me.” As well might a man close Hamlet with 
a bang and the supercilious remark, “ I never did 
see much in Shakespeare, anyway.” These remarks 
settle nothing but the status of the one who makes 
them. 

Here is a duty that has back of it the assent of 
the human conscience for hundreds of generations, 


22 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


yes, the majestic confirmation of the voice of God. 
Saints and martyrs have died for it. Heroes have 
struggled for it. Sages have argued it. Poets and 
painters have wreathed it with all the splendours 
of imagination. It has hashed down the centuries 
in a matchless path of honour. It has brought un¬ 
bounded blessings to mankind. And here is an 
insignificant mite who puffs out his chest and says, 
“ It does not appeal to me.” 

Let us sternly cast from us this nonsense. Let 
us wisely know that any recognized duty, that ap¬ 
peals to the vast majority of reasonable beings, will 
appeal to us if we give it a chance, whether now 
it appeals to us or not. The force of an appeal is 
dependent not only on the appeal; it often depends 
still more on the character of the soul appealed to. 
The same dynamite that will shatter a granite ledge 
makes no impression at all on a pool of muddy 
water. It is to our shameful discredit if duty does 
not appeal to us. 

If bread and butter do not appeal to us, but 
only candy and soda water, we may know that our 
digestive organs are at fault, and we go to a doctor. 
If history and biography do not appeal to us, but 
only flashy novels, we may know that our intellects 
are weak, and have recourse to a teacher. There 
is a good Physician, there is a great Teacher, who 
can give us an appetite for strong and worthy liv¬ 
ing. Nothing can do this but allegiance to Him. 
“ We love, because He first loved us.” We love 


DUTY THAT DOES NOT APPEAL 23 


duty because He first loved duty, and we love to 
do as He has done. “ The expulsive power of a 
new affection v will alone annul unworthy likings 
and strengthen the noble appeals. The love that 
we have for our Saviour will glorify duty with 
privilege, and throw around it the very glamour 
of delight. 


IV 


KEEPING ON THE EIGHT SIDE OF 

OTHERS 


E VERYTHING, as Epictetus once said, has 
two handles. Taking hold of it by one, 
we find it unbearable; taking hold by the 
other, we discover it to be easily and pleasantly 
borne. 

Similarly we say of a cross member of the family 
that he got out on the wrong side of the bed this 
morning. Every bed, it seems, has a wrong side 
as well as a right side, and it behooves us to dis¬ 
tinguish carefully between the two. 

Thus also every person has two sides, a wrong 
side and a right side. 

We are reminded of those whom we often meet 
who are deaf in one ear, and if by chance we get 
on their deaf side, we are straightway made to move 
to their hearing side. Thus every person has one 
side on which his spiritual hearing is most acute, 
on which he is most responsive to words and influ¬ 
ences from without. We are to find that side. 

A friend of mine has recently injured his arm, 
and wears it in a splint. I often walk or ride with' 
him, and must take pains not to get upon the side 


THE RIGHT SIDE OF OTHERS 


25 


that hurts; for if I do, I am sure to rub against it. 
Many a person’s feelings are more easily hurt in 
certain directions than in others; and we are to note 
which arm of his spirit he carries in a sling. 

Are you ambidextrous? Can you do things as 
well with your left hand as with your right? 
Doubtless there are many men who are ambidex¬ 
trous, by nature or training, but I have never met 
them. Doubtless we might all become ambidex¬ 
trous, much to our profit and the profit of the race, 
if we would take trouble enough; but we are far 
from it now. Still we shake right hands, and if 
now and then a man comes along who has lost his 
right hand and has to shake hands with his left mem¬ 
ber, the ceremony is awkward in the extreme. 

Why is it, since right-handedness runs through 
all mankind, that we persist in fancying ourselves 
ambidextrous in spirit ? In greeting others we are 
as likely to present our soul’s left hand as its right, 
and the resultant confusion we complacently regard 
as no fault of ours. We perceive that we did not 
approach their right side; but then, we arrogantly 
say, they should have no right and left sides, they 
should be equally approachable from both sides. 
That is to exalt theory above universal fact. 

Keeping on the right side of others depends, then, 
in the first place, upon the sensible recognition of 
this right-sidedness and left-sidedness of human 
nature. We are not to go at others with the indis¬ 
criminate plunge of a bulldog. We are not arro- 


26 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


gantly to assert our ideas of what they should bs 
in the face of what they are. By sympathy and 
love we are to put ourselves in their place. We 
are to gain that insight into life which is half of 
living. We are not to scout the currents of other 
lives as mere whims. We are to study them, and 
move our canoes along them and not athwart them. 
However we may wish for human uniformity, for 
full-orhed men and women, we are to hear in mind 
that such persons are the rare exceptions, and that 
very probably we are very far from this ideal. 

Then we are not to confuse this desire to keep 
on the right side of others with hypocrisy. If a 
man carries his right arm in a sling, it is just as 
honest to thrust out our left hand as under other 
circumstances it would he to thrust out our right 
hand. The recognition of disability is not passing 
judgment upon it, still less commending it. Con¬ 
forming our lives to the misfortunes of others or 
even to their idiosyncrasies is not a pretence, a lie, 
as if we were to deny their existence; it is merely 
to refrain from combating them. Sometimes it may 
be necessary to combat them, but we have the right 
to choose the time. Those who, in the assumed in¬ 
terests of frankness and courage, keep constantly on 
the wrong side of others, are simply shutting them¬ 
selves out from the possibility of influence when 
the just opportunity arises for making the wrong 
sides right. 

A sense of humour is one of the best guides to 


THE RIGHT SIDE OF OTHERS 


27 


the right side of others. Humour coincides with * 
humility. A pompous, selfish man never has any 
idea of the ridiculous. A certain light-heartedness 
is one of the most valuable fruits of true Chris¬ 
tianity. It lifts us above petty annoyances, it buoys 
us over insults, it floats us through the shallow 
waters of trivialities, and it enables us to catch and 
profit by all the winds of the Spirit. A hearty 
laugh, a cheery smile, the good-humoured refusal 
to take affront, these are impregnable shields against 
the porcupine darts that fly from men’s wrong sides, 
and under shelter from them we can usually slip 
around to their right sides, and remain there. 

But best of all aids, if we would live with men 
most helpfully and happily, is the indwelling Spirit 
of Jesus Christ. How promptly He found the right 
side of others, and how persistently He stayed 
there! The headstrong Peter, skeptical Thomas, 
fiery John and James, over-busy Martha, cautious 
Hicodemus, worldly Matthew, curious Zacchseus, 
haughty Pilate, bigoted Saul—our Lord saw the ex¬ 
cellencies of each, and appealed to those excellen¬ 
cies; the Hew Testament is full of examples for us 
if we would keep on the right side of others. The 
Spirit of Christ, dwelling in us, will lead us into 
all truth; among other truths, into this most salu¬ 
tary truth, that every man has a lovable side, a hope¬ 
ful side; and the Spirit will lead us to it, and hold 
us there. 


V 





THE EOAD TO EAILUEE 

N O one intentionally sets out on tlie road to 
failure. If any course were authorita¬ 
tively so labeled, with even the tiniest 
sign-board, it would he shunned by nearly all, 
though it were shaded by the finest trees and bor¬ 
dered by the loveliest flowers. Ho one deliberately 
selects failure as his goal. 

But if it is only some sentences in a book, though 
it were the Book of books, that mark the road to 
failure, they are easily overlooked. If it is only 
the advice of wise men, we may not hear it or attend 
to it. If it is only the example of others who have 
trod that road and shown whither it leads, we are 
ready to say that they merely took the wrong turn 
in it, and that we shall be more sagacious. There 
are many plausible excuses, if one wishes to take 
the road to failure. 

And many do desire to follow it, because, for one 

reason, it promises pleasure and ease. It leads 

along a level or down hill, and all other roads lead 

steeply upward. “ It’s a mistake to think you must 

work so hard,” its comfortable curves tell us, and 

the settees that border it. “ If you don’t, you’ll get 

just as far in the end. Trust to luck. Look at 

Millions, with his one fortunate speculation. Take 

28 


THE ROAD TO FAILURE 


29 


things easy, keep your eyes open, and something is 
sure to turn up.” The road says nothing about the 
myriad of Millions’s contemporaries in poorhouses. 

Others desire to follow the road to failure be¬ 
cause of very different inducements. The designer 
of the road has placed along it, here and there, 
gleaming richly out through the trees, a number of 
palaces of the most magnificent design. “ One of 
these is yours, if you go this way,” the road whis¬ 
pers from every tree-top. “ I am the road of 
wealth,” it declares. “ I am the road of power. I 
am the road of fame. Look at Napoleon. Look at 
Voltaire. Look at the Duke of Ducats. They all 
prospered exceedingly, in their various ways. Vast 
power and wide reputation and immense riches come 
to those that travel this road.” 

“ But Napoleon died in exile, and Voltaire died 
in the darkness of hopelessness, and the Duke of 
Ducats is universally despised,” you may say to the 
road to failure. 

The road answers indignantly: “ Is it my fault 
if they traveled on me too far? Why didn’t they 
stop before they reached the bad part of me ? ” 

What the road to failure never says is the thing 
most important for all men to know, namely, that 
the longer one travels along it, the steeper its descent 
becomes, and the harder it is to turn back. More¬ 
over, on either side is an impenetrable forest, full 
of wild beasts. The traveler is caught in a trap. 
The end of that road is death. 



30 THE ROMANCE OE RIGHT LIVING 


Perhaps this allegory is as old as man’s ability to 
make a road and walk along it; certainly it is as 
old as literature. But the oldest truths are the 
fundamental ones, and nothing is surer than that 
every man finds open before him two courses, one of 
them leading to success and the other to failure. 

Old and obvious as this truth is, most men con¬ 
stantly and disastrously overlook it. They walk 
heedlessly along the nearest and easiest road. So 
far as they know or care, there is no other road to 
travel. The most characteristic bit of modem slang 
is “ I should worry! ” 

There is one peculiarity of the road to failure, and 
this is that, though it is very hard to leave, it is very 
easy to enter. One can enter it any day, from any 
direction, at any place. Every enterprise we may 
undertake branches off into the road to failure; and 
if we want to go that way, we may. All these pas¬ 
sageways end in turnstiles strictly rachetted: we 
may go into the road to failure, but the turnstiles 
will not revolve backward. 

Many things favour the road to failure and all 
the side roads leading into it. It was Josh Billings, 
was it not, who once remarked that when a man 
starts tumbling down hill everything seems greased 
for the occasion? There is a strong wind blowing 
along these ways, always toward failure. It is no 
trouble at all to go with it; turn in the opposite way, 
and you must buffet a gale. 

The road to failure is one of the most insidious 


THE ROAD TO FAILURE 


31 


and crafty ways in the world. It changes its char¬ 
acter by absolutely imperceptible degrees. The air 
grows foul, but so slowly that the traveler does not 
know that it is no longer fresh and pure; he becomes 
wonted to it, would not feel at home in any other 
air. One by one the flowers drop away from the 
roadside, and in their place are the waving heads of 
serpents and the tangles of poisonous vines; but the 
traveler does not realize that the flowers have been 
replaced by serpents; the serpents have become his 
flowers. Gradually the fine houses become less fre¬ 
quent until they cease altogether, and in their stead 
dark masses of rock rise ominously, the lair of the 
wildcat and the lynx; but the traveler has forgotten 
the palaces, and his spirit has come to be at home 
in the gloom. The road to failure molds the spirit 
of man irresistibly into its own sad likeness. 

There is only one safety with regard to this dan¬ 
gerous road, and that is to keep out of it altogether. 
We may have a Guide. He not only knows the way, 
but He is the Way. He not only leads us to suc¬ 
cess, but He is Success. Being with Him is to reach 
our haven. Knowing Him is to succeed. And even 
if we have erred from the true way, even if we are 
far along on the road to failure, there is one thing 
we can do. We can shout for the Guide. We can 
call upon Him in our dark and deep distress. He 
will hear. He will come. And He will lead us out. 


VI 


THE DUTY OF BEING PLEASANT 

I E it is our duty to add to tlie happiness of the 
world, certainly it is our duty to be pleasant, 
for in that way we can contribute to the joy of 
our fellow beings more substantially, on the whole, 
than in any other way. 

Of course a great genius like Carlyle, even if he 
is crabbed, makes a magnificent gift to mankind in 
his books; but all who know what a sour life he led 
find less satisfaction in “ Sartor Hesartus ” and 
“ Heroes and Hero-Worship ” than they would if he 
had been a kindly man like Phillips Brooks. 

Whatever may be said of exceptional men and 
women, however, there can he no doubt that for ordi- 
• nary, every-day living, pleasantness is a more valu¬ 
able trait than shrewd philosophy, good business 
judgment, massive energy, or even generosity. 
There are few whom you meet that you can aid 
with money, hut you can help every one with * 
pleasantness. You will not find many opportuni¬ 
ties for the useful display of an acute intellect, hut 
' every hour of the day and almost every minute you 
can delight others with pleasantness. Not many of 

the world’s enterprises will submit themselves to 

32 


THE DUTY OF BEING PLEASANT 38 


your executive guidance, but you can have at any 
time the chairmanship of a committee on pleasant¬ 
ness, a committee of one. Even the universal duty 
and privilege of love has few chances for its inti¬ 
mate and active exercise compared with the duty 
and privilege of being pleasant. 

But while it is easy to find opportunities for 
being pleasant, the being pleasant is not so easy. 
All the world is hungry for it, the demand is enor¬ 
mous, but the supply is lamentably small. Look 
at the next crowd you enter, and you will find that 
most of the faces are depressing. They show dis¬ 
content, peevishness, moodiness, harshness. Eyes 
are dull, mouth comers are down, voices are queru¬ 
lous, gestures are nervous, bearing is spiritless. If 
you want to enter an occupation that is not over¬ 
crowded, try what some one has called “ the cheer- 
ing-up business.” 

This scarcity of pleasantness is caused by the 
inherent difficulty of the thing. We are likely to 
think that pleasantness is a natural gift, hut it is 
usually painstakingly acquired. We are likely to 
believe that pleasantness is a rather cheap and 
trivial accomplishment, to be gained by any one 
offhand, and not to be compared for a minute with 
skill on the piano, for instance, or with the power 
to make an eloquent speech. But many a noted 
pianist has been an egotistical nuisance, and many 
a strong orator has been a boor and a bully. In¬ 
deed, some that have achieved great results in other 



34 THE ROMANCE OP RIGHT LIVING 


fields of human endeavour have lamented their un¬ 
popularity, have sought to he pleasant, and have 
found that all their genius could not compass it. 

This is because uniform pleasantness requires a 
mental balance, a spiritual discipline, a wealth of 
character, that are the fruit of the most ardent 
striving, the resultant of the finest attributes of the 
soul. Any one can be pleasant to the pleasant, 
pleasant under favourable circumstances, pleasant 
when one feels like it; but the test is usually quite 
otherwise, to be pleasant with the disagreeable, 
pleasant under trying circumstances, pleasant when 
one feels cross and wretched and horrid. Pleasant¬ 
ness is not like a light struck from flint and tinder, 
which will flash out if the tinder is dry, and the 
flint is hard, and the wind is still, and the wood is 
quickly combustible, and the hand is skillful and 
steady ; pleasantness is like the electric flash-light, 
the product of much thought and toil, instantly 
available and thoroughly efficient. 

No one can be really pleasant if one is selfish, 
and unselfishness is the summit of character attain¬ 
ment. Pleasantness lives in the lives of others. 
Pleasantness takes to itself the entire definition of 
love in First Corinthians 13. Pleasantness, in 
fact, is the beautiful garment of love, it is the win¬ 
some exterior of a kindly soul. 

That is why one of the most praiseful epitaphs 
ever written is the famous one, “ She was so pleas¬ 
ant/ 7 Those four words paint a life that kings and 


THE DUTY OF BEING PLEASANT 35 


queens might well have envied. We know that 
u she ” was beautiful, gentle, graceful, and uni¬ 
versally beloved. We know that “ she ” was widely 
influential. We know that “ she ” is honoured 
among the angels in heaven. 

Therefore no one can set for himself or herself 
a worthier task than this of pleasantness. The 
effort to he pleasant is vastly gainful. It enriches 
for time and for eternity. It makes solid and 
rapid accretions of friends, opportunities, and 
powers. Whatever work we undertake is made 
easier by pleasantness. And with all this addition 
to our own happiness we are making large additions 
to the happiness of those around us. 

Yes, pleasantness, like all other good things, is 
hard to attain, hut it becomes constantly easier. It 
is a delightful momentum. Once set in motion, it 
takes care of itself, and increases its force with the 
passing of time. It is discovered to be vastly 
pleasant to be pleasant. We get an appetite for it. 
We enjoy it and look forward to opportunities for 
it. Society becomes ever more attractive, friend¬ 
ships ever more delightful. “ Whosoever hath, to 
him shall be given,” and of few matters is this so 
gloriously true as of pleasantness. 

And finally, pleasantness is contagious. One 
pleasant person will in time make a whole office full 
of grouchy people pleasant. Pleasantness is an ir¬ 
resistible leaven. Pleasantness is a radiating 
warmth. Pleasantness is a light that cannot be 


36 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


hidden. Pleasantness partakes of the fructifying 
power of Christ from whom it comes. 

It is to Him that we go for our pleasantness. 
No one can he pleasant in his own strength, because 
no one can he unselfish in his own strength. He 
is our Pleasantness, in proportion as He becomes 
our Self, He in us and we in Him, that His Pleas¬ 
antness may be perfected in us. 


YII 


PRAYER AND TEMPTATION 

F ORTUNATELY, since temptation is so com¬ 
mon and perilous an experience, aids against 
it are quite as common, and very powerful. 
The tempted man can flee to good books, to his 
friends and loved ones, to God’s clean, strong out¬ 
doors. Philosophy aids him, precious memories aid 
him, his self-respect aids him. The church in its 
many agencies, society in many of its aspects, gov¬ 
ernment with its laws and penalties, all help him 
to keep in the right path. But these numerous and 
powerful assistants are even jointly less than prayer 
in such an emergency. The Bible is less efficacious 
here than prayer, because it needs to he explained by 
prayer, and forced home by communion with God. 

Prayer is the best resource against temptation, 
for one reason, because it is most convenient. At 
the time when temptation assails us we may be 
alone; no helpful book may be at hand, or even the 
Bible, and we may have no well-stored Bible mem¬ 
ory ; the temptation may come in the dead of night, 
and many temptations do come in such periods of 
solitude or isolation. But however distant or inac¬ 
cessible other helps may be, prayer is always an in¬ 
stant possibility. If we have trained ourselves in 

37 


38 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


tlie habit of prayer, it is the refuge to which we 
flee instinctively. The prayer need not be long; 
ejaculatory prayer is often the most powerful 
prayer. It need not be eloquent; often the homelier 
it is, the more effective it is. Prayer is not locked 
in with a single restriction. It is free as breath¬ 
ing, and as easily natural. It is a perfectly ready 
resource in all times of spiritual danger. 

Not only is prayer always at hand, but it is al¬ 
ways a delightful resource, and so the more likely 
to be used. What is pleasanter than talking with a 
dear friend? What is more comforting than tak¬ 
ing troubles to one whose love and sympathy, whose 
power and helpfulness, have been abundantly 
proved ? Only a little real experience of the 
blessedness of prayer is needed to make it the great¬ 
est joy of our lives. As the wayworn traveler sinks 
with a sigh of pleasure into the comfortable chair at 
the inn, so on our life journey we reach the inn of 
prayer and get the refreshment for which we long. 

Prayer is not only a ready and delightful re¬ 
source, but it is a reasonable one. What is more cer¬ 
tain than that a father will not see his child assailed 
by an enemy or in peril on the brink of a precipice 
and fail to rescue him ? Is our heavenly Father less 
loving than the earthly fathers He has made ? We 
know that He is everywhere. We know that His 
knowledge of us is immediate and complete. We 
know that He loves us with a perfect love. Why, 
then, is not the doctrine of achieving prayer the 


PRAYER AND TEMPTATION 


39 


most logical of doctrines ? Indeed, if God did not 
hasten to rescue His tempted children, then the very 
structure of the universe would tumble about our 
ears, and our minds would welter in a chaos of 
doubt. With entire exactness the truth of prevail¬ 
ing prayer may be said to be the foundation of the 
stately edifice of human reason and divine certainty. 
If it is not a fact, there are no facts. 

But, some may ask, granting God’s knowledge 
of us, granting His fatherly desire to help us when 
we are tempted, can He do so ? Can even God make 
a man good against his will ? 

Assuredly not, for that would reduce a man to 
a mere tool in God’s hands. Man’s free will to do 
wrong is as much an essential of his responsible 
manhood as his free will to do right. God cannot, 
even in answer to prayer, compel a tempted man to 
resist his temptation, and force upon him purity 
and righteousness. But the very fact of prayer im¬ 
plies that God’s help is in accordance with our hu¬ 
man will and not against it. It may be a very poor 
prayer, just a weak flutter of an indecisive hand 
out toward the Rescuer; but it is a mighty token 
none the less. It means that in the depths of his 
heart the man does not wish to sin, does recognize 
his own powerlessness against sin, does wish God’s 
help in the emergency. A mother answers the feeble 
cry of a sick child even more quickly than the 
sturdy shriek of a well boy or girl; and the more 
nearly our temptation has us in its deadly grip, the 


40 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


more difficult we find it to send a full-throated cry- 
up to God, by so much the more certain is be to 
speed to our assistance; for be sees that we are in 
desperate straits. 

We must never forget that we are not praying to 
a cold, passionless, distant Deity, but to a God who 
has come down into our storm-tossed humanity, 
who has met all its trying conditions, and who has 
been tempted in all points like as we are, overcom¬ 
ing all these temptations. No temptation will befall 
us beyond what we are able to bear, because He, 
our brother, was able to bear them all, and His 
power is available for us. In all our temptations 
He has made a way of escape. He is the Way. 

Live with Christ, then, if you would overcome 
the Evil One. Live with Christ, the Redeemer 
dwelling in you. So live with Him that communion 
with Him will be inevitable. So commune with 
Him that living with Him will be inevitable. Read 
of Him, in long drafts. Think of Him, with un¬ 
wearied delight. Talk about Him, gladly com¬ 
muning with His other children. Make prayer in¬ 
deed your vital breath, your native air. Tempta¬ 
tion will come without warning; make prayer an 
instinct. Temptation will come in almost irresist¬ 
ible power; make prayer a mightier power in your 
life. Lean upon prayer with confident trust; it will 
never fail you, till the final victory lias been won, 
and temptations vanish for evermore. 


VIII 


PRETENCES THAT PAV 

I S it ever right to pretend to like persons that 
one does not like? The advocates and prac¬ 
tices of perfect frankness declare that one’s 
feelings toward others should always he on the sur¬ 
face. In the interest of truth, therefore, they be¬ 
come the most disagreeable folks in the community. 
Their sharp tongues give fifty wounds a day. If 
they think your face is ugly, they tell you so. If 
they believe you conceited, they call you conceited. 
If they despise you, they make you realize their 
scorn in two minutes. This, they think, is being 
finely frank and boldly honest. 

But it is not. Such conduct is born of the very 
conceit it so freely condemns. It supposes that its 
own judgment, often hasty and without real dis¬ 
cernment, is the true judgment. Even if it were 
true, it takes it for granted that the truth should 
always be spoken. 

On the contrary, the truth should often be con¬ 
cealed, especially disagreeable truth, because by 
concealing it, and acting as if the happy opposite 
were truth, that opposite is most likely to become 

truth. If you do not like a person, saying you do 

41 


42 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


not like kirn and acting out your dislike merely per¬ 
petuate your disinclination to friendship; and if 
the other has qualities justifying aversion, your 
frank hostility makes him still uglier than he was. 
Those that go through the world in a friendly atti¬ 
tude toward others, even toward those whom they 
dislike, very frequently justify their temporary 
pretence by coming to like them. Cordiality proves 
to he the sunshine in which unsuspected flowers of 
character lift up their heads and blossom into 
beauty. 

Of course this does not mean that it is ever right 
to condone wickedness. Frank and courageous de¬ 
nunciation of evil is the duty of every Christian. 
But we are considering rather those personal whims 
and feelings upon which most of us lay so much 
stress, those instinctive aversions which we exalt 
into life guides, those petty suspicions and finicky 
tastes and fastidious preferences which we allow to 
dominate our friendships and even our acquaint¬ 
ances. Cast them to the winds! Until the contrary 
is plain as daylight, treat all men as brothers. The 
response, in the case of most men, will he a royal 
brotherhood. 

Of similar nature is the manifestation of inter¬ 
est in a sermon or other address. The attitude and 
whole appearance of many auditors seem to say to 
the preacher or speaker: “Here I am; make me 
listen to you if you can. I expect to be bored. You 
must do your best, if you keep me awake.” 


PRETENCES THAT PAY 


43 


That is sufficiently depressing to spoil an ora¬ 
tion by Daniel Webster. On tbe other band, what 
speaker is not kindled by an eager face, a counte¬ 
nance alight with sympathetic feeling and ardent 
expectation % u This must be the speech of my life,” 
says the speaker to himself, “ if only to please that 
friendly auditor.” Even if you do expect to he 
bored, you assure yourself of boredom by making 
your expectation evident; while a brief pretence of 
interested attention will usually pass speedily into 
an attention that is wholly unfeigned. 

Similarly, though we should go to church, take 
part in the prayer meetings, join in the church work, 
because we love Jesus Christ and love His service, 
it is well for those of us that do not feel that love 
to serve Christ at first merely from a sense of duty. 
In the early days of Christian Endeavour, before it 
had become an accepted agency of the Kingdom, 
critics were busy with the Christian Endeavour 
pledge. u What! ” they cried. “ Speak in prayer 
meeting every week, whether one feels like it or 
not? That is to reduce religion to formalism and 
Pharisaism. That is to have an external piety in¬ 
stead of an inward affection for Christ and His 
Church.” 

The criticism would be just if the prayer-meeting 
testimony stopped with words, if it had no effect on 
the life of the speaker as well as the lives of the 
hearers. But it is forever true that the doing of 
any right act from a sense of duty, faithfully and 


44! THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


persistently, soon gives birth, to a love for that ser¬ 
vice, a joy and pride in it, so that we cease to do it 
from a sense of duty and do it now in the fullness 
of happy desire. The quickest w T ay to attain any 
affection for what is noble is to live lives as near 
as possible to what they would be if we had that 
affection. 

A good illustration of this principle is the matter 
of giving. Of course the ideal gift springs from a 
real interest in the cause to which w T e give; but sup¬ 
pose we do not feel that interest, are good causes to 
be neglected by us? That would be to close our 
hearts and purses forever against them. Giving is 
a path to interest, and a sure path. Thousands have 
become devoted lovers of missions because they re¬ 
sponded, perhaps very unwillingly, to some appeal 
from the pulpit, and gave merely because others 
were giving and they were ashamed not to join in. 
It is a most unworthy motive, but the deed has put 
them in line for a motive entirely worthy. Where 
their treasure has gone their hearts soon follow. 
They have become part owners of India, China, the 
rescue mission in the near-by city, and it is human 
nature to look after one’s investment. Giving for 
a lower reason leads to giving for a higher reason, 
and ultimately for the highest. 

The principle may even be applied to the crown¬ 
ing act of life, the act of prayer. What Christian, 
setting out reluctantly on the pathway of divine 
communion, because of habit only, or perhaps be- 


PRETENCES THAT PAY 


45 


cause of his church covenant, but has felt in a few 
minutes a glow in his heart, a melting sorrow for 
sin, the kindling of new aspirations and longings, 
and has run to meet his Saviour and throw himself 
at His pierced feet ? The prayer for each one of us 
is, “ I believe ; help Thou mine unbelief.” We have 
only the feeble beginnings of any nobility; we will 
act as if we had the whole, and, trusting in Christ 
to help, we Soon shall have the nobleness in its 
blessed entirety. It will be a pretence that has 
richly paid. 


IX 


LIFE’S PROUD PROSPECTUSES 


A CERTAIN editor had this experience. He 
obtained from a humourous writer of na¬ 
tional reputation the promise of a serial 
story. This writer had never before produced a 
serial, or, indeed, a short story, and it was thought 
that the announcement of his first work of fiction, 
since he was widely popular, would attract much at¬ 
tention and bring in many subscriptions. 

Put the writer did not live up to his promise. 
The distracted editor wrote him repeatedly as the 
months passed, reminding him of the serial, telling 
him what hopes his paper had based upon it, and 
how extensively it had been advertised. The writer 
was ready with additional pledges, he even set the 
day when the manuscript should be in the editor’s 
hands, but no sheet of “copy” ever appeared. 
Finally the editor’s expostulation failed to bring 
even a reply, and all expectation of the serial was 
abandoned. 

Then came a surprise. In spite of the writer’s 

fame and the wide advertisement of his “ first 

serial,” no one in all the land seemed to remember 

it, or wrote to inquire why it was not forthcoming. 

The paper pursued its even course unmoved by the 

46 



LIFE’S PROUD PROSPECTUSES 


47 


failure, its subscription list as large—or as small— 
as before. Evidently that item of its prospectus, at 
least, bad fallen completely flat. 

Other experiences, of a similar nature though not 
so striking, have led that editor to distrust prospec¬ 
tuses. He has come to believe that the success or 
failure of a periodical depends upon its weekly or 
monthly performance, steady, unheralded, modest, 
but convincing. Its readers grow into a liking for 
it as they grow into a liking for a human friend, 
not by a glaring announcement of what it will do, 
but by the slow accumulation of pleasant and profit¬ 
able memories. It is what such a friend has done, 
whether a living friend or a paper friend, that 
makes up his hold upon us. 

That editor now values the saying of Richard 
Watson Gilder, the distinguished editor of The 
Century, who, when asked how he made up a num¬ 
ber of his magazine, replied simply, “ I go into my 
garden and pluck a nosegay.” By this he meant 
that to compose a number he took up here and there 
from his store of accepted manuscripts what he 
thought would combine together most pleasurably. 
He turned out a number that was fragrant with The 
Century's fragrance that its readers had come to 
enjoy, and colorful with The Century's point and 
vivacity. If he had done the work by schedule, by 
a sort of florist’s prospectus, he would have spoiled 
it all. Gilder was both poet and publicist. The 
poet kept close to God and the publicist kept close 



48 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


to the people. It is the right combination for the 
making of a life as well as of a magazine. 

How often in life we are surprised by the failure 
of our prospectuses, our proud expectations and 
plans and promises, while some little unplanned-for, 
unexpected word or deed “ makes a big hit ” ! It is 
thus that Julia Ward Howe dashed off “ The Battle 
Hymn of the Republic ” after visiting a soldier’s 
camp, never dreaming that that “ song in the 
night,” which it literally was, would prove to he her 
great contribution to the history of her country. 
Who imagines that Lincoln knew, when he penned 
his brief speech on the way to the Gettysburg ceme¬ 
tery, that those few sentences would outlast and out¬ 
weigh all his other addresses combined? “Wife! 
Wife!” cried Oliver Wendell Holmes, plunging 
across the hall after dashing off “ The Chambered 
Nautilus,” “I have written something better than 
I can write! ” He had indeed excelled himself. 

These illustrations are all drawn from literature, 
but they prove the close and necessary connection 
between literature and life. Carried further, they 
would show the vital relation of all great deeds to 
life. What is famous, memorable, permanent, in 
the world and its history, is an outflowing of strong 
and beautiful living, and can no more be planned 
for than the blossoming of flowers. They are not 
part of a prospectus, they are part of the expanding 
summer, they are an outgrowth of nature’s order, 
they are inevitable. 


LIFE’S PROUD PROSPECTUSES 


49 


This unexpectedness of true success does not 
mean, of course, that it is all or even partly a matter 
of chance. Rather, it is more certainly a conclu¬ 
sion of firmest law. If by our shrewd contriving 
and our blatant promises we could commandeer suc¬ 
cess, if a prospectus could make a popular magazine 
or a resultful life, then audacity would indeed be 
king, and dash and boast would triumph to the dis¬ 
may of steady goers. If big type, flaunting asser¬ 
tions, and daring claims built up a magazine, a book, 
a breakfast food, or a man, then a dictionary of 
synonyms and an advertising agency would be the 
sufficient open sesame to fortune. But God’s provi¬ 
dence takes strict account of the contents of the 
magazine or book, the taste and digestibility of the 
food, and the wearing qualities of the man, and of 
nothing else. Aside from these, advertisements ab¬ 
solutely do not count. 

It is all a most happy encouragement of serene, 
intelligent, modest, constant performance. Ambi¬ 
tions knock over their own ladders. Clamour drowns 
its own reverberations. Glaring advertisement, by 
its gaudy colours and its extravagant assertions and 
its maddening iterations, dulls eye and ear to its ap¬ 
peals. The world is framed for humility and quiet 
industry. The still, small voice is the voice of God 
and of God’s people. Prospectuses are of far less 
value than retrospectuses. Every one of life’s prizes 
is won by honest living, and it is vain to seek them 
in any other way. 


X 


HOLY HEALTH 

u “W" "W" OLY ” is by derivation the same word as 
I I “ healthy.” A “ holy” man is a 
-A. “ whole” man, and a “ whole ” man is 
a “ healed ” man. Bible English is full of illus¬ 
trations of this history of the two words. 

To speak of “ holy health” is therefore tautologi¬ 
cal, as one would say “ holy holiness ” or “ healthy 
health.” But who thinks of this? Many readers 
probably think that I am linking together two in¬ 
congruous ideas when I entitle this chapter “ Holy 
Health.” 

If every one regarded health as holy there would 
be far more healthy persons and far more holy per¬ 
sons. The Bible so regards it. “ Your body,” wrote 
Paul, “is a temple of the Holy Spirit . . . . 

glorify God therefore in your body ”; “ The temple 
of God is holy, and suck are ye.” 

How we defile the temple of God by sin, by any 
sin; and is not misuse of the body a sin ? The hu¬ 
man body is the most wonderful thing that God has 
created. Upon it He has lavished His most marvel¬ 
ous handiwork. The brain is God’s masterpiece; the 
eye comes close to it in splendour of achievement. 

The hand is the most efficient of all tools, the diges- 

50 


HOLY HEALTH 


51 


tive and circulatory system the most efficient of all 
engines. One could study the human body a long 
lifetime and scarcely enter the portal of its glories. 
The body of the lowest savage in Africa or Aus¬ 
tralia is a more resplendent temple than Solomon’s, 
more beautiful than the Parthenon. To abuse it or 
misuse it is the most beastly vandalism. 

More than that, the human body is Christ’s only 
instrument for getting His work done in the world. 
Through our hands His blessed hands must reach 
out aid to all the needy. Upon our feet He must 
speed on all His errands of love. His Holy Spirit 
can act directly upon the hearts of men; but in 
material manifestations, even in oral speech, He has 
limited Himself to what He can do through the 
bodies of His followers. What confining! What a 
handicap! And how necessary it is that we should 
not blunt His instrument, or weaken it in any way! 
In this view of the matter, how holy is health! 

We may almost be said to be priests of health, 
looking at this sacred aspect of it; looking also at 
its relation to our own work, we may be said to be 
stewards of our health, even as we are stewards of 
our money. Por health is money. Health is work, 
and all the results that come from work. To be 
careless of health is to be heedless of labour, often 
to make labour impossible. 

Scrupulous cleanliness of teeth and frequent visits 
to the dentist may seem time foolishly taken from 
our tasks. It will not require many fits of dyspep- 


52 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


sia or of the toothache to show ns that it was time 
given to our tasks. We steal hours from our proper 
sleep in order to advance our work, and discover, 
perhaps too late, that thereby we have been fear¬ 
fully retarding our work. We snatch hasty lunches 
that we may hurry back to our business, and by this 
procedure before long we may take ourselves away 
from business altogether. We worry ourselves into 
a headache or into nervous exhaustion, and so we 
get something more to worry about. We cannot 
afford daily exercise and recreation, and so we afford 
doctors’ bills that are ten times as costly. When we 
can no longer remedy matters we find out that the 
reason why health is holy is because it allows us to 
do the work which God has set before us in this 
world, and do it in the way that God approves. 

Therefore health is something to pray over; and 
that not when sickness comes—we are quick to pray 
then!—but while we are in the full tide of physical 
existence. Health is something to thank God for 
daily, and consult with God about it every day. We 
should hold our relation to our health as a part of 
our religion. We should eat and drink, bathe and 
exercise, sleep and rest, all to the glory of God. 

Most of us, nowadays, are faddists in this matter 
of health. We observe one law of our bodies strenu¬ 
ously, and therewith absolve ourselves from all other 
laws. We are quacks of hygiene, considering a sin¬ 
gle phase of right regimen as a panacea. It may be 
that we practise Fletcherism, and by this vigourous 


HOLY HEALTH 


53 


and righteous chewing excuse ourselves for late 
hours and overwork and no exercise. We make an 
all-sufficient physical virtue of eating no meat. Or, 
we are devotees of golf, and eighteen holes a day are 
supposed to carry us over the ruin of gluttony. 

dSTo, no! Health is whole-th, in fact as well as 
etymologically. Our "whole body is to he full of 
light. Disease will enter through the least un¬ 
guarded crevice. As I write, I am myself just re¬ 
covering from a severe sickness lasting for more 
than half a year, with three months in the hospital 
and a series of dangerous surgical operations, just 
because infection found its way into an abrasion on 
my ankle. Our safe ideal is nothing less than health 
as nearly perfect as is possible for us, health main¬ 
tained at that high standard by painstaking effort. 

We are the temples of the Holy Ghost. Shall we 
allow the stained-glass windows to be cracked? Shall 
we let the foundations crumble, and allow fissures to 
appear in the walls, and permit the towers to hend 
from the perpendicular? Shall we endure torn 
carpets and muddy floors and dusty woodwork and 
an organ out of tune ? This is not a metaphor, it is 
fact, as we shall sadly learn some day if we do not 
realize it now. We are rapidly nearing the world 
"wherein spiritual realities are the only realities, and 
we might as well get ready for it. One of the ways 
of getting ready for it is by regarding this earthly 
tabernacle as wholly God’s, and its health as holy. 


XI 


HOW TO WORK 


H ERE are ten rules for work. They do not 
pretend to be complete, or even to be the 
chief rules for work (though some of them 
are among the chief); but they are all good rules, 
the observance of which will make any labour easier 
and more successful. 

1. Enjoy Your Work. “ IIow can I,” you ask, 

“if it is not work in harmony with my tastes and 

abilities ? ” The answer is twofold. Most of us 

have some choice in the matter, at least at the start. 

We need not take up the first job that chance throws 

in our way. We can study ourselves, and find work 

suited to our powers and inclinations. Effort in 

discovering our proper task at the start will save us 

much disagreeable and futile effort later on. 

And in addition, if a distasteful task is forced 

upon us, we can learn to like it. Happiness is a 

matter of the heart and not of circumstances. If 

we do our work well, we shall come to take pride in 

it. Happiness is a part of all well-earned wages. 

2. Plan Your Work. Haphazard toil is never 

successful toil. Work moves best according to a 

schedule. The methodical man reels off a dozen 

54 


HOW TO WORK 


55 


tasks while tlie -unsystematic worker is fumbling 
with one. A well-made plan is already halfway to 
the goal. It is possible to make poor plans, hut even 
a poor plan is better than none. Plans are valuable 
in slight jobs, they are invaluable in great tasks. 
One of the finest of the old-fashioned phrases is 
“ the plan of salvation ”; if God needed a plan for 
this greatest of all undertakings, surely we need one 
for our lesser work. 

3. Work with an Eye on Eternity . It is a poor 
plan that looks only a day ahead; the best plans look 
all days ahead. As every deed, however slight, has 
its eternal effects, every deed should be entered upon 
with thought for its endless results. Work that is 
seen to be profitably related to eternity is entered 
upon with enthusiasm and followed up with zest. 
If last hour does not fit finely into eternity, it was 
a wasted hour. 

4. Learn Your Job . There is a best way to do 
everything, and the second-best way is almost in¬ 
finitely below it. The intelligent worker is twice a 
worker. Study as long as you please on the small¬ 
est task, there will still remain much to learn about 
it, and it will be well worth learning. These are 
days of keen competition, but the competition is all 
among the intelligent; ignorance is out of the run¬ 
ning before it starts. 

5. Work Serenely . Worry switches your efforts 
off upon the wrong track. Calmness doubles all 
your powers. Trust in yourself, in your fellows, 


56 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


and in God, is fire under the boiler, wind on the 
sail, electricity in the wire. Napoleon won his vic¬ 
tories because he knew he could; you can do the 
same. 

6. Work Steadily. Plod is not a showy nag, but 
it is a sure one, it arrives. There is only one road to 
Getting-through-it and that is Keeping-at-it Street. 
Don’t expect to make up for half speed by double 
speed. In running an automobile twice as fast the 
driver must use more than twice as much, gasoline, 
not to speak of racking the machine. Spurts of all 
kinds'are expensive; in the end, they are useless. 
There is always a loss that more than counterbal¬ 
ances the gain. The only profitable way to run an 
engine or a life is a steady plod, neither too fast nor 
too slow. 

7. Work Creatively. However humdrum your 
task, however commonplace, however many millions 
of men have done it before, you can put into it 
something new, you can be a creator, an originator. 
You can develop some feature of value. You can 
make the task wear a novel aspect, to yourself if not 
to others. You can be a Columbus of that task, and 
set sail in it to fresh continents of achievement. 
You can have the zest of discovery, which will make 
new work of old jobs. That is why God keeps on 
working, and you can share the zeal of the 
Creator. 

8. Work Persistently. Failing is for scaling— 
failures are simply obstacles to climb over. If you 


HOW TO WORK 


57 


can’t get over them, you can get around them. When 
you have made sure that you are right, you have 
made sure that you may succeed. Study the history 
of the achievers, and you will be ashamed of your 
faltering. Most of them overcame daily more diffi¬ 
culties than you meet in a year. More courage is 
needed off the battle-field than on it. Cultivate the 
dogged perseverance that wins wars, and you will 
come off more than conqueror. 

9. Work with Others. There is something about 
every task, often many things, which call for other 
workers. If they are not to aid the work directly, 
they must aid indirectly by suggestions and praise. 
No man worketh to himself alone. This means, of 
course, that you will give to others the aid you ex¬ 
pect to receive from them. It means that you will 
never feel lonely in your work, but will be stimu¬ 
lated and upheld by the consciousness that you are 
one of a vast army of working brothers. And what 
you could never do by yourself the army can readily 
accomplish. 

10. Work in Harmony with the Divine Worker. 
We say confidently, “ Where there is a will there 
is a way ”; but there is no way except as our will 
agrees with God’s will, and we are walking in God’s 
way. Whatever God wants us to do, we can do. 
Whatever He does not want us to do, we shall mis¬ 
erably fail in, whether we recognize that fact at the 
time or not. Christ was more successful than any 
other worker that ever lived on earth, and He could 


58 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


say that He always did the things that pleased God. 
In proportion as we can honestly say that, our work 
will be happy, and will be crowned with all suc¬ 
cess. 


XII 


CHRISTIAN PHILANTHROPY 

HILAN THROPY ” is one of the finest 
WT* words of the English language. Really it 
is not of the English language, hut of the 
Greek, and it means “ love of man,” just as 
“ misanthropy ” means “ hatred of man.” In a 
sadly snobbish fashion we are coming to define a 
philanthropist as a rich man who gives away part 
of his money, but a philanthropist may be a very 
poor man. Philanthropy has nothing to do, pri¬ 
marily, with giving; it has to do with loving. A 
rich man may give away a hundred million dollars; 
but if he does not love mankind, he is not a philan¬ 
thropist in any fair sense of the word. A poor man 
may give away one dollar, or he may not have a 
cent to give away; and yet, if his heart is full of 
love to mankind, if he longs to give to them, and if 
he does what he can to help them, he is a philan¬ 
thropist. It would be one of the finest of social ser¬ 
vices if we could restore this noble word to its noble 
significance, for no other word can take its place. 

It would be foolish to say that there were no phi¬ 
lanthropists, no humanity-lovers, before Christ’s 
day. Joseph was such a lover, so was David, so was 

Socrates; but it would be exactly true to say that 

69 


60 THE ROMANCE OE RIGHT LIVING 


Christ introduced a new meaning into philanthropy, 
and exalted it to a power and glory undreamed be¬ 
fore, while at the same time He increased enor¬ 
mously the number of real philanthropists in the 
world. So profound was this development that we 
may almost say that philanthropy began in the 
world with the establishment of Christian philan¬ 
thropy. 

What is this Christian philanthropy? And how 
does it differ from the philanthropy of the Greeks 
and Romans and even of the Old Testament? In 
a word, it is love of mankind as brothers . It is the 
swift and glad deduction from the Christian doc¬ 
trine of the fatherhood of God, and the sonship of 
Jesus Christ, the Elder Brother of us all. It is the 
practical conclusion from the belief that God has 
made of one blood all races and tribes, all classes and 
conditions of men. 

Non-Christian philanthropy bestows as a feudal 
chief, almost as a being of another race; Christian 
philanthropy bestows as a brother. Non-Christian 
philanthropy hands down, as from a throne; Chris¬ 
tian philanthropy hands out, on a brotherly level. 
Non-Christian philanthropy oversees, with a spy¬ 
glass; Christian philanthropy lives with its unfor¬ 
tunate brothers. Non-Christian philanthropy is 
egotistical, overbearing, dictatorial; Christian phi¬ 
lanthropy is humble, gentle, seeking the light. 

Now it is only fair to acknowledge that the non- 
Christian type of philanthropy exists, and even 


CHRISTIAN PHILANTHROPY 


61 

flourishes, in Christian lands. Pew of us go far 
without encountering it. Some very conspicuous 
examples have arisen during recent years. Men 
endure it because of the good it does in spite of its 
defects. Men fawn upon it and flatter it so that it 
never realizes its defects. Yet its existence is a 
constant warning to Christianity, a constant chal¬ 
lenge, and even an abiding menace. 

Non-Christian philanthropy arises in Christian 
lands whenever men of wealth receive Christian 
ideals with their heads and not their hearts, as a 
duty and not a privilege, and follow those ideals as 
overlords and not as the humble servants of Jesus 
Christ and loving ministrants to Christ’s brothers 
and their own. Entered upon in this spirit, with 
motives in which personal pride and ambition are 
noticeably mingled, philanthropy is quite likely to 
do more harm than good, because it is not genuine 
philanthropy at all. 

Christian philanthropy, on the other hand, must 
ever watch lest it fall into this pit. Sometimes it 
starts, as did several of the monkish orders, with a 
true lowliness, a real self-sacrifice, a genuine spirit 
of Christian brotherhood; but, becoming its broth¬ 
ers’ keeper, with the power over its brothers that this 
implies, it falls away into the very domineering 
pride and boastful ambition and haughty intoler¬ 
ance that are the opposites of Christian philan¬ 
thropy. The history of those monkish orders is a 
perfect illustration of this danger. 


62 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


Now since Christian philanthropy is what it has 
been defined as being, something entirely within the 
reach of every Christian and something of the very 
essence of Christianity, what Christian should not 
become a philanthropist? No money is needed, no 
skill or special ability is needed, nothing is needed 
but Christlike love. Love brings wisdom. Love 
gets in some way what money is required. Love 
itself is usually all that is required, being the great¬ 
est thing in the world and worth all the gold that 
ever was coined. 

Perhaps the times in which we are living call 
more earnestly and piteously for Christian philan¬ 
thropy than times ever have called before. Poverty, 
the world over, is intense; it never was more bitter; 
it is going to be greater long before it is less. 
Hatreds are rampant everywhere, class hatreds, 
caste hatreds, racial hatreds, and now the vast hatred 
which has divided the world into two warring 
hosts. 

Against all this physical and spiritual misery 
Christian philanthropy ranges itself instantly; noth¬ 
ing but Christian philanthropy will ever make the 
world again a place worth living in. The need of it 
is deeper than even the church yet realizes. 

Indeed, the need is so vast as to be benumbing. 
How can we ever, asks the Christian, get power 
enough to meet it? And the answer is that each 
Christian’s responsibility extends only as far as his 
own personality extends or may be made to ex- 


CHRISTIAN PHILANTHROPY 


63 


tend. Beyond that is happily in mightier hands. 
But within that little realm each Christian is su¬ 
preme. And if every Christian is merely one phi¬ 
lanthropist, the swiftly rising tide of Christian 
philanthropy will soon cover the entire earth with 
its healing and purifying flood. We are not to wait 
upon one another. We are not to tarry for organiza¬ 
tion, or printed pledges, or words of command. We 
have our organization, the church of Christ. We 
have our pledges, which we made when we joined 
the church. And we have our word of command, 
ringing down the centuries from Him who alone 
could give it: “ Lovest thou me ? ” “ Love one 

another.” 



XIII 


OX HAVIXG A GOOD TIME 
u GOOD TIME” is well named—it must 



be good. A hilarious time is not neces¬ 
sarily a u good ” time; neither is a spor¬ 


tive time, nor an expensive time, nor a brilliant 
time. Much planning may fail to make a “ good ” 
time; keen intellects, high spirits, rich surround¬ 
ings, jolly comrades, may not compass it. A “ good ” 
time must be good. 

This cuts out from a good time all that is sinful. 
Malicious slander, frothy gossip, bitter sarcasm, do 
not contribute to any good time. Intoxicating liquor 
never helps on a good time. Hazing is not a good 
time, nor is gambling, nor are “ joy rides.” 

Good times are not only good, but they make bet¬ 
ter ; that is, good times are good for something. The 
test of a good time to-day is to-morrow. A head¬ 
ache on Tuesday denies a good time on Monday; so 
does an uneasy conscience. On the other hand, a 
good time is proved by a better time, by more alert 
minds, stronger bodies, purer and happier souls. 

Good times happen, they are seldom planned for. 
Many persons spend so much time and pains getting 
ready for good times that they never have them. 
Good times are sequels to good work. Xeglected 


64 


ON HAVING A GOOD TIME 


65 


tasks vitiate good times. The best pleasures take us 
unawares, and all their parties are surprise par¬ 
ties. 

How commonly men forget that good times must 
he good, is seen in the frequent shrinking from be¬ 
coming a Christian, in the fear that the act will 
prevent all good times in the future. Really, grow¬ 
ing good is the only way to grow happy. Joining 
the church is joining the world’s most blessed social 
institution as well as its great religious organiza¬ 
tion. It is the non-Christians that do not have good 
times. 

Since all these things are true, it follows that one 
of the best ways of having a good time is to make 
others have a good time. Unselfishness is the root of 
all enjoyment. Who ever ended a party given to 
little children without a glow at his heart ? Who 
ever came away from a home of poverty, having 
emptied there a full basket, with a step that was not 
buoyant, a soul that was not singing? The help¬ 
ful people are the joyful people. The road to hap¬ 
piness leads by your neighbour’s door. 

If these suggestions seem too altruistic, almost 
forbidding, whoever holds that opinion thereby 
shows himself out of practice in Christianity. Christ 
said that He came to earth in order to put His joy 
into men, and His is the only joy worth while. It 
is not a pallid, languid, monastic joy, hut the full- 
blooded rejoicing of little children, of hearty ath¬ 
letes, of boon companions. No romping is more 


66 THE ROMANCE OE RIGHT LIVING 


jovial, no laughter more infectious, no game more 
exhilarating, than the Christian’s joy. 

Years ago Dr. E. B. Meyer wrote a little article 
on Christmas, and this great Christian preacher and 
author spoke in the most human way of his desire 
to spend Christmas simply in romping with the 
children, getting down on the floor and rolling over 
and over, and in other ways going hack to his child¬ 
hood. That is the spirit of hearty merriment which 
animates God’s children, however old. Their dig¬ 
nity is not oppressive, their learning does not weigh 
them down, their holiness is as the dazzling white 
garment of a holiday. The more holy they are, the 
better time they insist on having. 

Another word besides “ good ” needs to be empha¬ 
sized in the phrase, “ Having a good time,” and that 
is “ having.” A good time is a possession, a lasting 
possession. We have it, and hold it. What are 
falsely called good times may be distinguished from 
the genuine good times by their transient nature. 
We experience the “good time ” and then forget all 
about it, or remember it with sorrow and disgust 
and shame. We do not “have” it; it “has” us. 
But times that are really good are good for all time. 
We think of them years afterwards, and always with 
a thrill and a glow of delight. They become perma¬ 
nent factors in our living. We “ have ” them. 

It is right to wish thus to have good times. It 
is right to desire the strength and ardour they give 
for our tasks, and it is right to desire them for their 


ON HAVING A GOOD TIME 


67 


own sake. Our Father in heaven is eager to give 
good things to those that ask Him, including good 
times, just because He wants us to be happy. 

But it is foolish to expect these good times except 
in accordance with their own laws. The miner 
would know better than to go to Ohio for gold- 
bearing rock, the farmer would know better than to 
plant an orange grove in Maine, and yet we are 
continually expecting good times under circum¬ 
stances that violate all these laws of a good time 
which we have been discussing. We try to raise a 
crop of good times from the soil of selfishness. We 
try to blast good times from the rock of ungodliness. 
And we are constantly disappointed in these efforts, 
and wonder why we cannot be happy. 

On the other hand, it is the easiest thing in the 
world to have good times if we observe their laws. 
Seeking thus, we are sure to find; knocking thus at 
the door of Joy, it is promptly opened to us. “ Why 
askest thou me concerning that which is good ? ” 
Christ said to a foolish inquirer; “ One there is who 
is good.” In Him are all good times. Find His 
will (and it is most plainly set forth) ; do His will 
(and the doing is not difficult, since He will aid 
you); and you, like Paul, will have all things and 
abound. 

Since joy is placed within the reach of all of us, 
and since it is so fruitful in power and usefulness, 
is a good time less than the happy duty of every 
one? 


XIV 


BIBLE-SATURATED MEX 


W HEX a sponge is full of water, press it 
at any point and it gives out the water. 
A saturated sponge is a prepared 
sponge, ready for any sponge emergency. 

Thus also a Bible-saturated man is a ready man. 
For every pressure of fate he has a reply of inward 
wisdom and power. He is never at a loss for com¬ 
fort or sustaining. “ These things have I spoken 
unto you,” said Christ, “ that my joy may be in 
you, and that your joy may be made full.” This 
filling comes to the Bible-saturated man, a fullness 
of joy that the world cannot give, and certainly can¬ 
not take away. 

Bible saturation is very different from the thin 
dribble of Bible that satisfies most of us, a sort of 
Bible dampness that requires the pressure of some 
terrific calamity to squeeze out a drop of sacred 
thought. Bible saturation is good for the daily toil 
and the daily pleasure. It gives us a Wednesday 
and Thursday Bible as well as a Sunday Bible. It 
makes the Bible our meat and drink, our homely 
meal, and not our occasional medicine. 

Xo one will become a Bible-saturated man until 
he learns the necessity of the Bible. They say that 
death from thirst is the most agonizing of all deaths; 


BIBLE-SATURATED MEN 


69 


but lack of the water of life is stupefying rather 
than agonizing, and death from this cause is merely 
spiritual coma. Men are driven to the Bible by 
understanding their need of it. Their observation 
must show them what strength other men get from 
it. Their consciences must show them their own 
sinfulness and weakness. Their wills must lead 
them to make trial of the Bible satisfactions. The 
more they use the Bible the more clearly they will 
see that they cannot afford to do without it. 

Bible saturation, of course, is a slow process. 
There is no such thing as mastering the Bible; it 
must master you. A charlatan who should advertise 
to teach the Bible in ten easy lessons would be 
laughed at by the world. Sorrow must teach the 
Bible, failure must teach it, joy and labour and hu¬ 
man brotherhood must teach it, and all the blessed 
and difficult experiences of mortal life. Time goes 
into the process of Bible saturation, and painstak¬ 
ing, and much thoughtfulness. Only a patient man 
can become a man of the Book. 

Wise method must go into the process of Bible 
saturation. Many of us know little about the Bible 
because we do not seek that knowledge in a way 
that would bring us any other knowledge. We must 
have a regular time for our Bible reading, and the 
time must be adequate to the great purpose. We 
would not undertake to master any other volume in 
the fragments of time we often consider sufficient 
for the greatest of all books. Not only a regular 


70 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


time, but a regular place is necessary, or at least 
best, that customary surroundings may put us im¬ 
mediately into the Bible frame of mind. And we 
need, of course, a proper set of printed Helps to in¬ 
terpret to us tbis Book that comes down to us from 
ancient times and from other lands and races. With¬ 
out such helps we should not think of mastering any 
book but this supreme Book. 

Above all, for Bible saturation we need the aid 
of the Holy Spirit, who has promised to take all 
these things and show them to us. Wisest method 
and most copious commentaries fail without the un¬ 
seen Teacher. We need Him to quicken our minds, 
to enforce our memories, and to touch our con¬ 
sciences. Even geology and psychology become new 
and living sciences to us if we have inspiring living 
teachers; how much more do we need this greatest 
of all teachers for the greatest of all studies! 

Persistency also is required for Bible saturation. 
Fill a sponge with water to its utmost and then leave 
it in the air; it will not be long before the sponge is 
dry and hard. The cares of this world, the world’s 
pleasures and sorrows and toil, will soon evaporate 
our Bible knowledge, our Bible wisdom, if it is not 
continually renewed. Over and over the mind must 
go to the fountain. The supply of the water of life 
which is adequate for to-day will not answer for 
the morrow. “ Day by day the manna fell.” Day 
by day come the showers of Bible blessing. 

Would you test your Bible saturation? Then 


BIBLE-SATURATED MEN 


71 


look to jour life. The experience of all Bible-satu¬ 
rated men is that their lives are rendered wonder¬ 
fully easy and pleasant by the Bible. Is that so 
with you ? Do your worries melt away from you in 
the glow of the Bible promises ? Are your perplexi¬ 
ties borne blithely away by the flood of Bible 
thoughts and experience? Is your loneliness dissi¬ 
pated by the memory of the Bible men and women 
who are waiting for you over yonder and who even 
now, perhaps, are watching your struggles in the 
world where they have struggled so heroically ? Is 
the Bible truly the man of your counsel, the lamp of 
your feet, the sword of your spirit, all the other 
good things that it has proved itself to be in the lives 
of millions of Bible-lovers ? This is the test of the 
fullness of your Bible gains. 

Let us never be satisfied with less than the best 
the Bible can bring to us. Halfway is a poor way 
in any enterprise, and the greater the enterprise the 
more miserable is any paltering with it. I would 
not say, “ Bible saturation or no Bible at all,” but 
I would say, “ Become saturated with the Bible! ” 
Crowd your memory with the blessed truths, with 
the very w^ords of Holy Writ. Rehearse them in the 
night watches and as you walk to your tasks. Begin 
and end the day with them. Make each day, dis¬ 
tinctively and in progressive series, a Bible day. 
Then will you become a man, a woman, of the Book, 
and the Book will become you, entering into your 
life, and incorporating itself with your destiny. 


xv 

THE BLESSEDNESS OF BOOKS 


I HAVE in my attic eighteen thousand friends. 
Among those friends are the very wisest men 
and women the world has known, the most 
sympathetic, the wittiest, the most delightful, the 
noblest. Not one of these eighteen thousand friends 
has ever forced himself upon me. They are all 
modest and retiring; they come at my call, go when 
I dismiss them, and calmly bide my further pleas¬ 
ure. When I go away, I am constantly happy in 
the thought that these eighteen thousand friends are 
waiting my return. They have never failed me or 
disappointed me. I go to them for information, 
and they freely give it; for advice, and it is mine— 
advice of the best and without nagging. I seek com¬ 
fort in sorrow, a new hold on life, a new insight 
into eternity, and all this is bestowed upon me. 

Of course these eighteen thousand friends are so 
many books; what else could they be ? I am blessed 
with many friends in the flesh, and they can do for 
me what my library cannot do; but there are many 
times when my friends on the shelf can help me 
more than my friends that move and talk. 

I value these books so highly that I am ashamed 

72 



THE BLESSEDNESS OF BOOKS 


73 


when I think what trifles I paid for them. They 
were mostly second-hand, though they occupy this 
first-hand place in my affections. I picked them up 
for a quarter each, a dime, or a nickel. I rescued 
them from dusty sidewalk stalls or the dark corners 
of cellar bookstores. I greeted each as a new-found 
brother, and welcomed him into my attic family. 
Henceforth he was a friend for life. 

Visitors wandering through the maze of my pine 
shelves in the closely packed attic sometimes ask me 
whether I have read all these books. Yes, with the 
heart, though of course not all of them with the 
head. I know them all intimately by the insight of 
affection, which is so much better than the cold ap¬ 
praisal of the eyes. It has been love at first sight in 
every case, and this has accomplished more than 
decades of formal meeting. I know the character 
of every book, I might almost say its personality. 
I am glad that I shall never read them all, for thus 
I am assured of an exhaustless joy and benefit. 

I have no pride of possession in these books. I 
would that all the world had as many friends, and 
I am never more happy than when I can introduce 
these book comrades to my friends of flesh and 
blood. It is a cordial brotherhood into which one is 
admitted by the love of books. A library is a true 
democracy. 

But though I gladly admit all others to this bless¬ 
edness of books, those eighteen thousand volumes in 
my attic make me feel as rich as Bockefeller or Car- 


74 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


negie. Richer; for their libraries, though worth 
immensely more than mine in dollars and cents, did 
not come to them in the intimate way in which mine 
came to me, by the loving search of many years, by 
a hundred glad economies, by scores of miles of 
walking annually, by a pursuit of painstaking en¬ 
thusiasm. 

As I sit in the midst of my hooks it is a wealthy 
joy to realize that I am at least a potential multi¬ 
millionaire of thoughts. I am sitting in a treasure 
house the like of which Croesus did not own. Here 
by the bushel are jewels of wisdom, gems of brilliant 
imagination. Here are stores of golden experience 
that would bankrupt the riches of India if one 
should try to buy them. So far as I make them 
really my own, I am possessed of the eternal treas¬ 
ures that will outlast this world and all worlds. 

There’s the rub, in all that has to do with books 
—making them really our own. It is easy to pay 
ten cents for an old book or a dollar and a half for 
a new book, but when the money leaves your purse 
the book does not enter your head. Write your 
name on its flyleaf, record it in your book catalogue, 
place it on your shelf, and still it is not yours. Read 
it, read every word of it, and it may be as far as 
ever from being really yours. Before you can own 
the book, in some way or other the spirit of the book 
must become your spirit, the book—its essential 
facts, its living purpose—must get embodied in your 
memory and your purpose, must become you . 



THE BLESSEDNESS OF BOOKS 75 


Whenever this happens, you understand anew the 
blessedness of hooks. You have been made more 
than yourself. You have added a cubit to your 
mental and spiritual stature. You have enlarged 
your life by another life, a life of significance, of 
beauty and power. It is this that exhilarates you, 
that fills you with strange joy, in all your authentic 
dealings with books. 

Thus it will be seen that no slothful man can read 
a book. The process is strenuous, calling for the 
most alert attention, the most eager appropriation. 
For every thousand that go through the motions of 
reading, there is scarcely one that actually reads. If 
readers were as many as books or even as libraries, 
this old world would be leagues nearer its goal. 

Education in the art of reading is therefore the 
task of a lifetime. The most expert readers are con¬ 
stantly growing more efficient, and the crudest be¬ 
ginner may have good hope. Every increase in men¬ 
tal power, in spiritual apprehension, makes one a 
better reader; and improved reading in turn brings 
enlarged mental and spiritual power. It is an end¬ 
less chain of profitable reactions. Whoever has in 
his heart the beginnings of book blessedness has en¬ 
tered upon a path that reaches through eternity; for 
if there are no books in heaven there is certainly 
something of the same kind, only far better. 


XVI 


MARKED UP 

“ yT" Down” is an attractive sign 

I I °^ en seen 0Tir s h 0 P s > hut who has 
ever seen the sign, “ Marked Up ” ? 
In our human merchandizing we begin with a price 
as high as we dare to affix, and gradually mark it 
down till the article is sold. 

Christ deals with human lives in just the opposite 
way. So far as they are influenced by Him, they 
are marked up, advanced in value. All the contact 
men have with Him makes them worth more. 

Paul has a very tender and profound phrase in 
his first letter to Corinth: “ the brother for whose 
sake Christ died.” He may be a very weak brother, 
but Christ died for him just the same, and that gives 
him the strongest claim upon us. For his sake, we 
may well put ourselves out, even abridge our just 
liberties, take the greatest pains to remove stum- 
blingblocks from his way; he is “ the brother for 
whose sake Christ died.” What a tragic, shameful 
sin if any act of a Christian should counteract the 
divine sacrifice! 

Indeed, if we love Christ, no man, however 
wicked or repulsive, can be common or unclean in 

our eyes. Christ’s death for him marks him up. 

76 



MARKED UP 77i 

He was bought with a great price and is still to be 
held at that price. 

Whatever Christ died for, His followers can cer¬ 
tainly live for. He died for the world; shame to us 
if we do not live for the world. He died for the 
lowest, least hopeful sinner; shame to us if we count 
that sinner as beneath our notice, beyond our faith 
and hope. He rated man so highly that He gladly 
left heaven for him, gladly ascended Golgotha for 
him; shame to us if we are unwilling, for the sake 
of any man, to leave our easy chair or climb the 
hillock of a little effort. 

Our Lord touched common life in many ways, and 
never left it common. How enormously was the 
value of the lily marked up when He bade us con¬ 
sider it. What importance attaches to sparrows 
since He said that not one of them falls to the 
ground without our Father’s notice. The sweeping 
of a floor, the breaking of a loaf of bread, the sow¬ 
ing of seed, the growth of a grapevine, have taken 
on transcendent significance from His mention of 
them. He has enriched beyond measure all our 
daily happenings; association with Him has marked 
them all up. 

Life itself, our mere existence, is transformed by 
Christ entering it. He stands at the door of our 
life and knocks, He is so eager to enter in. He 
would like to sup with us; what a banquet then is 
ours! We may think that we are living humdrum, 
futile lives; He evidently does not think so. What- 


78 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


ever in our faithlessness we may imagine, He sees 
in them boundless possibilities. His interest in our 
lives exalts them in our own tired eyes. 

We know that there is nothing fictitious about 
this. Speculators often work promotion schemes, 
inflate values, make what is worthless appear most 
desirable, and so cheat the public and fatten their 
own purses. But the increase of values which Christ 
brings about is real, because it is based on actuali¬ 
ties. He sees the gold mine where men see only 
quartz. He sees the king in the peasant, the sage 
in the ignoramus. The possibilities which He points 
out are not mirages. The New Jerusalem which 
comes down out of heaven rests upon the most sub¬ 
stantial of foundations. Christ never pretends. 

And so the Christian has a right to believe in him¬ 
self, since the all-seeing Christ believes in him. It 
would be false modesty to distrust his own possibili¬ 
ties; such distrust would amount to a criticism of 
Christ. In proud humility the Christian holds his 
head high, for Christ has lifted it up. It is a great 
thing to have a friend who believes in one; how 
much greater when that friend is the Son of God! 

We may not at once come into a full appreciation 
of what Christ has done for the values of men and 
of all things. Sometimes this understanding flashes 
upon the believer with glorious suddenness. Some¬ 
times instantly the world takes on a new and super¬ 
nal meaning. All existence is glorified for us. 
Windows are opened into the heavenly life. 


MARKED UP 


79 


But most of us come to see these glories only 
slowly, as we creep into fuller communion with 
Christ, as we enter more and more deeply into the 
secrets of the Christian life. It is a lovely un¬ 
folding. Day by day earth becomes fairer. Day 
by day the folks around us become dearer. Day by 
day the present becomes brighter and the future 
glows with a happier hope. Christ’s joy is getting 
into us and our joy is getting filled full. 

It is easy, even for one who has been blessed by 
many of the Christian experiences, to fail of this 
enriching and ennobling of life. It is easy to go on 
to the very gates of death with all values marked 
down, ourselves, our friends, mankind, the world, 
and human destiny. It is easy to see through a 
glass, darkly. Our souls have no trouble in manu¬ 
facturing clouds. The sun is bright, but our eyes 
are very small, and small things will put them in 
the shadow. 

And it is not easy to live the appreciating life, 
the marking-up life, the life of ever-increasing valu¬ 
ation. In fact, so prone are we to take the down¬ 
ward course, to look downward, to think downward, 
that only He wdio came from above can give us the 
upward bent, the lifting impulse. But He can do it 
and is eager to do it. This is the more abundant 
life He wishes us to enter. He will lead us into it 
as fast as we will let Him. 

Onward, then, with Christ! As you begin each 
day, begin it with the confident expectation of novel 


80 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


and delightful experiences. You are not to end the 
day as you began it. The evening is to find you 
stronger than the morning, fairer, sweeter, wiser, 
nobler. The day is to make you happier than you 
have yet dreamed of being. It is to acquaint you 
with new depths of friendship. It is to unfold fresh 
meanings in the world and open up glorious vistas 
of the world’s future. This marvelous day is to 
lead to one still more wonderful, and that to a day 
yet greater, and so on through all the expanding 
reaches of eternity; for there is no end to God’s 
power and love. 


•XVII 

'OUR WILLS AXD GOD’S WAYS 


u 


w 


HERE there’s a will there’s a way” is 
a maxim of good intentions but false 
pretensions. It puts man’s will in the 
place of God’s will, and estimates it as practically 
omnipotent. 'Only of the Infinite Will can it he said 
truly that there is always a way open to it. 

This maxim has deceived many thousands, luring 
them on to vain endeavours and false hopes. It has 
led them to persist in enterprises quite impossible 
for their powers. It has resulted in embittered, 
defeated lives. “ Others succeeded,” say these vic¬ 
tims of mistaken philosophy, “ and I can do what 
they did, if I have the will power. I’ll find a way 
or make one.” 

How every one should recognize the immense 
value of the human will. Ho life is well lived with¬ 
out purpose. This is the power that holds us to 
our tasks, overcomes obstacles that often seem insur¬ 
mountable, and carries us in triumph to our goal. 
Where there is a strong, steady, intelligent, consci¬ 
entious will, there always is a way. Without it 
there never is a way, no matter how great the genius 
may be that seeks it. 


81 


82 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


But this very fact that the will of man is so 
mighty renders doubly dangerous such a saying as 
“ Where there’s a will there’s a way.” If the will 
is not intelligent and conscientious, if it is not in 
harmony with God’s will and therefore with reason 
and with providence, there is no way for it, and 
there should not he. 

So the very first condition for success in life is to 
make God’s will our guide. He alone is the Way. 
When we have His will, we have His way. When 
we have His way, we for the first time have our 
own way—a way that we shall be eternally glad to 
have made our own. 

And then, having merged our wills in God’s, how 
powerful, how magnificent our wills immediately 
become! Man’s most glorious instrument is a con¬ 
secrated will. Before it all obstacles fall—that 
ought to fall; with it all buildings rise—that ought 
to rise. Our vaunted will power then becomes power 
indeed. 

With this understanding of the matter, what is 
better worth cultivating than this same will power ? 
Men may most significantly be divided into those 
who have it and those who lack it. To gain it is 
worth all perseverance and painstaking, because in 
it is the secret of all accomplishment. ‘Having 
gained it as our servant, it will henceforth defeat 
our foes and do our work. 

How are we to go to work to gain this wonderful 
will power? We cannot will ourselves into it, for 




OUK WILLS AND GOD’S WAYS 


83 


we should need the will power itself to do that. But 
we can work and pray ourselves into it. We can 
recognize the need, and then our intelligent, God- 
aided effort will do the rest. 

Conscience is an infallible guide to will power. 
If we follow its lead implicitly, going where it 
urges, doing what it bids, we shall meet the most 
educative and strengthening experiences. The 
muscles of our souls will grow apace, and our spirit¬ 
ual stamina will become adamantine. No one that 
neglects conscience can be anything but a moral 
weakling, and no one that obeys conscience can fail 
to grow gigantic. 

Will power, we need to remind ourselves, is not 
willfulness. Willfulness is will weakness and not 
will power; it is not strength but catalepsy, which 
often counterfeits strength. “ A wilfu’ man maun 
hae his way ”—but willfulness never has its way. 
Willfulness is not full of will, but empty of it. 
Willfulness is the mirage of will-fullness. 

“ When I am weak, then am I strong,” said Paul, 
the man of iron will, the man of successful ways. 
He put his will into subjection to the law of Christ, 
and thereby won his crown of authority. He bent 
in loving service over the humblest, and so he came 
to stand before kings. If he had been a willful 
man, he would never have impressed as he did his 
will on the world. 

The will that counts for character is an unselfish 
will, but it is a will. It fixes on what is best worth 


84 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


doing, and it holds to that with a tenacious purpose. 
Every day is made a new drill in will power. Every 
night finds this knight of the will with a little 
stronger determination than the night before. 

It is a superb sensation, this of knowing ourselves 
to he growing more masterful. If you could get 
such a grasp of the forces of nature that you could 
fly, how you would exult in the development of 
speed, in the conquest of the air! Or if you could 
conquer the chemical and physical forces of the 
world so that you could transmute metals and grasp 
the enormous power resident in every atom, how you 
would rejoice in your expanding experiments, in 
your daily marvels of new accomplishment! An 
even greater delight attends the development of 
one’s spiritual powers, the annexation of new do¬ 
mains in the world of thought and of character. It 
is a great thing to he the Columbus of one’s own 
soul. 

Such an exhilaration is within the reach of all. 
Few can reach the earth’s poles, hut all can reach 
the poles of character, the climaxes of goodness and 
of strength. Few can he multimillionaires of gold, 
but all may he multimillionaires of grace. 

If you have a weak will, your first task, your 
daily, anxious toil, should he to strengthen it. Ac¬ 
cept no excuse, such as you will so readily offer to 
yourself. Allow yourself no indulgences. Aim at 
ideal will power, for nothing else ever finds God’s 
ways. Be your own strictest taskmaster. Keep 


OUR WILLS AND GOD’S WAYS 


85 


insistent account of your progress or your failures. 
Count the day lost, though you make that day a 
thousand dollars, in which you have not made some 
little gain in will power. Thus only will you pierce 
to the center of the citadel, and find shining there 
the jewel of a divine success. 


XVIII 


THE ART OF EATING TOGETHER 

I BELONG to the Knockers’ Club. This honour¬ 
able company is not an organization. It has 
no officers, though sometimes an officer of the 
law would he considered a needed member. It has 
no constitution, except the human constitution. Its 
membership consists of any person in our office who 
can be persuaded to “ go out and have some grub,” 
and any visitor who can be induced to “ come 
along.” Its meeting place is any convenient restau¬ 
rant, the cheaper the better. Its meetings are every 
once in a while. Such is the “ Knockers’ Club” to 
which I am glad to belong. 

Its name is genuinely descriptive, which is more 
than can be said of all club names. Its members 
are all expert “ knockers.” What “ digs ” they can 
give! What “ slams! ” No member is safe from a 
hit. And if any one enters the “ Knockers’ Club ” 
with a thin skin, his cuticle gets toughened before 
he has attended many meetings. 

Good-natured ? It is more than that, it is hilari¬ 
ous. The harder the knocks, the more we enjoy it. 
We get into such a gale of merriment that the neigh¬ 
bouring eaters gaze at us in wonder, and in envy. 

86 


THE ART OF EATING TOGETHER 87 


We go away from every sitting with our brains 
tingling and our hearts glowing. The knocking has 
been all in good fellowship, as bear cubs roll over 
one another and cuff one another for pure joy of 
living. If we should eat together without “ knock¬ 
ing/’ we should count the meal an unprofitable 
failure. 

Now something analogous to this procedure of the 
“ Knockers’ Club ” must enter every worth-while 
eating together. Not that all would enjoy this ver¬ 
bal horseplay; some would call it rough; some would 
be frightened by it. But the mutual understanding 
which is back of it, the hearty good fellowship, the 
give and take of mind and soul, these are always a 
part of the art of eating together. 

What a travesty on that fine art is the average 
meal of which two or more human beings partake! 
They sit at the same wooden table, but they do not 
gather at any common table of the spirit. They 
talk, but they do not converse, for that good word 
implies that their minds are “ turned together.” 
They are polite to one another, but not pleased with 
one another. They have fed their bodies, but they 
have not at the same time fed their souls. 

The communion feast in our churches should be 
to modem Christians what it really was to the first 
Christians, a model for every common daily meal. 
At the church communion we Christians commune 
with our Lord, but we also commune with one an¬ 
other. The feast is designed to cement the fellow- 


88 THE ROMANCE OE RIGHT LIVING 


ship of the saints as well as their spiritual union 
with their Saviour. Thus it will be with every meal 
when Christians truly enter into the spirit of the 
communion service. 

We of the Occident need to adopt more of the 
oriental view of the significance of eating together. 
To men of the East the partaking of a meal cements 
friendship. The circle of a table is supposed to sur¬ 
round henceforth the lives it has once bound to¬ 
gether. Food coming from the same dish and en¬ 
tering different bodies is supposed to join those 
bodies in a mystical union. If enemies have eaten 
together they are from that time fast friends. Our 

communion service lifts that oriental custom to the 

* 

loftiest plane. 

The art of eating together, then, is the art of liv¬ 
ing for the highest and the best. It is the art of 
meeting others upon the ground of loving sympathy 
and brotherly helpfulness. It is the art of for¬ 
getting differences and emphasizing agreements. It 
is the art of unselfishness. 

People eat together more often in the home than 
anywhere else, so the art of eating together is pri¬ 
marily a home art. Unless we practise it in the 
home we are not likely to practise it in the res¬ 
taurant, or in the hotel, or anywhere else. 

But the art is peculiarly difficult in the home, be¬ 
cause we so easily exhaust one another there, or 
think we do. It is not so easy to keep up an inter¬ 
est in one another. We may love one another, but 


THE ART OF EATING TOGETHER 89 


we do not enjoy one another! This very contradic¬ 
tory sentence expresses the near-tragedy of count¬ 
less homes. 

Now since the art of eating together implies en¬ 
joying one another, it comes very close to the secret 
of a happy home. We shall enjoy one another if we 
really enter sympathetically into one another’s life. 
Every life is packed full of thrilling interest as soon 
as we understand it. God, who understands us most 
thoroughly, is most interested in us; that is the rea¬ 
son why Christ came to this earth. As we share 
God’s loving insight into humanity, we shall come 
to share His absorption in humanity. 

Cold breakfast tables, dumb dinner tables, silent 
supper tables, are therefore fundamentally unchris¬ 
tian tables. Of course we all realize that table quar¬ 
rels are unchristian, but so also is table glumness. 
By the “grace” which we say at the beginning of 
the meal we summon, if we mean it, the gracious 
presence of the Master. When He comes, His joy is 
in us and our joy is fulfilled, filled full. He makes 
us acquainted with one another, interested in one 
another, happy with one another. His presence in¬ 
carnates the art of eating with one another, and it 
is all summed up in James Freeman Clarke’s beau¬ 
tiful interpretation of the Cana miracle: 

Dear Friend! whose presence in the house, 

Whose gracious word benign, 

Could once, at Cana’s wedding feast, 

Turn water into wine; 


00 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


Come, visit us! and when dull work 
Grows weary, line on line, 

Revive our souls, and let us see 
Life’s water turned to wine. 

Gay mirth shall deepen into joy, 
Earth’s hopes grow half divine, 
When Jesus visits us, to make 
Life’s water glow as wine. 

The social talk, the evening fire, 

The homely household shrine, 
Grow bright with angel visits, wheD 
The Lord pours out the wine. 

For when self-seeking turns to love, 
Not knowing mine nor thine, 

The miracle again is wrought, 

And water turned to wine. 


XIX 


ALL SOETS 

u 'fc T takes all sorts of people to make a world.” 
So we say with a shrug when we meet some 
one who is not of our sort. The other person 
is probably saying the same thing of us. 

It sounds rather liberal to say, “ It takes all sorts 
of people to make a world.” It is a recognition that 
the other sorts of folks may have a use, may fill 
niches of their own, may be rather good sorts of 
people after all. We are proud of our broad-minded¬ 
ness. Some that we know would not own the neces¬ 
sity for these other kinds of people to make a world; 
would sweep them, metaphorically, off the face of 
the earth. We are more tolerant. 

One can imagine the minerals talking. Says the 
Diamond to the Euby, “ I suppose we must acknowl¬ 
edge the usefulness of Silica and Iron over yonder; 
you know it takes all sorts of material to make a 
world.” And the two gems glitter and flash in their 
exclusive corner. But here are the Silica and the 
Iron, the vast, solid substance of this great globe; 
we can fancy their looking askance at the proud 
gems and saying scornfully: “ Gewgaws! Silly 
bits of stone! But I suppose it takes all sorts of 

material to make a world.” 

91 


92 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


It is indeed fortunate for us that the Creator 
was not so supercilious in making the world. He 
was just as much interested in the wonderful pyra¬ 
midal quartz crystal as in the diamond. He cared 
just as much to perfect the potato as the rose. He 
rejoices in a raindrop as in the Falls of Niagara. 
Whatever He has had to do with has been for the 
time as the only thing in the world, as if all the 
world were of that sort. He has no favourites in 
His creation. 

Nor has He any favourites among men. Of course, 
John is nearer to Him than Judas; but that is the 
fault of Judas, not the merit of John. Of course, 
as one star differs from another star in glory, Paul 
shines in the heavenly firmament more resplendently 
than Tertius; hut if Tertius, as is very likely, loves 
God as intensely as Paul, and strives as hard to 
please God, God loves Tertius as much as Paul, and 
blesses him as much. The law of gravitation is uni¬ 
versal ; the same rule holds good for a feather as for 
a planet, for Mercury as for Jupiter. So is the law 
of divine love. 

It is fortunate for us, also, that not only does 
God care equally for all sorts, but that He has made 
His world of many sorts. What chemical element, 
even the most obscure, would we wish omitted % We 
are Constantly finding new and important uses for 
what we had hardly known before, such as radium 
and helium. Where would he our civilization if all 
the world were one vast diamond ? or, for that mat- 


ALL SORTS 


93 


ter, if all tlie world were iron ? We could not spare 
the oak tree, but neither could we spare the blue¬ 
bird. We should miss the common grass even more 
than the marvelous orchids. 

Equally fortunate is it that God likes a diversity 
of men. What if the Creator had made us all book¬ 
worms, and the world one vast library ? Would not 
a farmer then be almost worshiped as a god ? We 
have manifold needs, and we enjoy satisfying each 
one of those needs. How fortunate that God has 
made men who enjoy providing for the satisfaction 
of each one of our needs! How fortunate also that 
men exist whose needs call for the especial thing 
that we like to make or to do! 

Who has not had the happy experience of “ being 
agreeably surprised” in some person? We have 
thought him cross-grained, and he turns out to be 
teuder-hearted. We have thought him crude, and 
we discover that he is an ardent student of Brown¬ 
ing. We had thought him cold, and we find that he 
cannot speak of his dead child without weeping. 
We had thought him an infidel, and we learn that 
he knows by heart the Gospel of John and rever¬ 
ences its every word. 

We call such an experience “ getting under his 
shell.” We thus lay the blame on that mythical 
“ shell,” and not on our own purblind eyes, our own 
dull sympathies. The loveliness, the tenderness, the 
wisdom, the faith, stand out clearly to us, now that 
our eyes are opened. They were there plainly all 


94 (THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


the while, had we only looked for them, expected 
them. 

No one is likely to see in any sort of man what 
he is not looking for. To shut out any sort of man 
from the possibility of exhibiting this or that noble 
and beautiful quality is sure to mean a great loss 
for us. It is as if the chemists had refused to admit 
coal tar to their consideration as a source of colors, 
and so had lost to mankind its loveliest dyes. 

“ All sorts to make a world! ” Say it not in con¬ 
descension, but in gratitude and pride; gratitude to 

■V. 

the Maker, and pride in your fellow men of all sorts. 
Become a Columbus of human nature, and go forth 
every day expecting to find in the most unlikely 
place an unsuspected new world of beauty, heroism, 
sagacity, and goodness. You will not be disap¬ 
pointed. 

This is not to deny the existence of evil, or to shut 
our eyes to it. There are bad sorts in the world as 
well as good sorts. But there is good in the bad 
sorts, just as there is evil in the good sorts. The 
Son of God came to earth because of the good in 
the bad sorts as well as because of the evil in the 
good sorts. He found a denying Peter. He found 
a confessing Zacchseus. And in like manner He 
sends us forth “ into all the world,” to make dis¬ 
ciples of all the sorts of men that make the world. 


XX 


CHOICE SEATS 

I T is a dark day, and the lights of the steam 
cars are turned on. As you go through the 
train looking for a good seat where you can 
read your newspaper you are sure to find the seats 
directly under the lights filled first. It makes no 
difference whether the passenger wants to read or 
not; he may he sound asleep; he has picked out the 
choice seat under the light. Never mind whether 
others that want to read must take the darker seats; 
“ first come, first served,” you know. Hasn’t he a 
right to the best seat, as he came first, even if he 
makes no use at all of that which renders it desir¬ 
able ? 

Walk along the streets and observe the street cor¬ 
ners. You will not go far without discovering a 
corner where the crowds are thrown into confusion 
by two persons who have chosen the street corner 
for a conversation. They have not thought to step 
a little aside against the building. They pay no at¬ 
tention to the scores of pedestrians who must turn 
out of their course for them, and bump into one 
another, and ruffle their tempers. Did they not 

meet each other on that street corner ? Have they 

95 


96 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


not the same right to that street as any one else? 
Do they not pay taxes? So there they stand, con¬ 
versing serenely, entirely oblivious to everything hut 
their own selfish whims. 

“ Move up! Move up! Please move up! ” shouts 
the street-car conductor. Around the doors is a 
choked, swaying mass of uncomfortable humanity. 
In the center of the car, a big vacant place. The 
people at the inner edges of the crowd are comfort¬ 
able, because they front this vacant space. Why 
should they budge to accommodate the crowds near 
the doors? Have they not a right to stand where 
they please in the car ? Why should they put them¬ 
selves in the middle of the car and so have harder 
work to reach the doors when they reach their desti¬ 
nation? Why, indeed? 

Thoughtfulness should be illustrated in a church, 
if anywhere; but look over the next congregation 
you see, and notice how few go to the end of their 
pews, leaving the seats next the aisle for the late 
comers. Next to the aisle is the choice seat. One 
has the pew arm to rest on. One has a clearer view 
of the preacher. One can get into the aisle and out 
of the church more quickly when the benediction is 
pronounced. Does not the occupant of that pew 
pay for the privilege ? Why should he not occupy 
the choice end of it? Is he not doing them a suffi¬ 
cient favor by allowing them to enter the pew at 
all? 

Thus through all social relationships the principle 


CHOICE SEATS 


97 


of the choice seats may be followed. Sometimes 
the seat is only choice for others and not for the 
occupant, and sometimes the occupant himself is 
benefited by the choiceness, or persuades himself 
that he is. It makes little or no difference. Every¬ 
where the kindly observer of human nature is sad¬ 
dened, as Christ was, by the scramble for what are 
considered to be the best seats, and the holding of 
them against all comers. Everywhere one sees 
jockeying for advantageous positions in the race of 
life. Everywhere one sees the contest of selfishness 
and pride. Everywhere is illustrated the old fable 
of the dog in the manger, who cannot himself eat, 
but will not permit the horse to eat. 

Now it is in these common social relations that 
Christian unselfishness is most helpfully shown, just 
because they are common. Slight in each case, the 
aggregate is enormous, represents almost the whole 
of life. We do not often have an opportunity to 
save a drowning boy, but every day we have dozens 
of chances to make it pleasanter for others on the 
street, in the cars, in the restaurant, in our office, 
or in our home. If we save our self-sacrifice for the 
great occasions, we shall probably never have a 
chance to illustrate the crowning grace of Chris¬ 
tianity, and we shall miss many thousands of 
chances which would sum up a far more splendid 
total. 

It will help us to be Christians in the little things 
of life if we remember where Christ is, and always 


9S THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


range ourselves by His side. He is not in tbe front 
ranks jostling for place. He is not among tbe 
bustlers for prominence. He is not looking out for 
His own ease and wealtb. He is in tbe rear of tbe 
crowds. He is in tbe poorest seat. He is exalted, 
but on a cross, not on a tbrone. 

It will belp us also if we form tbe habit of look¬ 
ing beyond tbe present. We have Christ’s word for 
it that tbe occupant of tbe lowest seat will be in¬ 
vited to the highest seat, while tbe man who has 
pushed himself into tbe best seat will be degraded to 
tbe worst. Always sit under tbe light here, whether 
you use it or not, and hereafter you will have tbe 
darkness. Block up tbe street corners here, and 
you will hardly have the chance to repeat your sel¬ 
fishness on the streets of gold. Take the end seats 
here and hold them against all comers, and you will 
with difficulty find any seat at the marriage supper 
of the Lamb. For nothing so decisively as selfish¬ 
ness shuts a soul out of heaven. 

Christ spoke in parables in order that we also 
may interpret Christianity in terms of our daily 
lives. If He were living to-day, He would teach 
religion in the language and atmosphere of the tele¬ 
phone, the dry-goods counter, the ticket office, the 
subway, and the elevated. It is not that these mat¬ 
ters may illustrate religion, but that they may em¬ 
body religion. Unless our love of God and man 
shows itself in the seats we select or surrender, we 
have no love of God and man to show itself at all. 


XXI 

ALL THIXGS XEW 


O XE of the most delightful promises in the 
Bible comes near the close. It is the 
promise in Revelation, which John heard 
from the majestic Occupant of the throne: “ Be¬ 
hold, I make all things new.” 

Some men like old things because they are old, 
but all men like new things because they are new. 
What housewife does not long for a new house, 
everything fresh and unused from cellar to garret, 
new dishes, new rugs, new furniture, new table 
linen, new clothes ? What man does not enjoy mov¬ 
ing into a new office, with new chairs, a new table, 
and a big, shining, new desk? What teacher does 
not enjoy a new textbook, with clearer type, clearer 
explanations, a more fascinating style ? What 
reader does not delight in cutting the pages of a 
bright new book ? Yes, and what man or woman of 
all of us but would shout for joy at the chance to 
throw away the old life, with all its wearying fail¬ 
ures and tiresome worries and enchaining sins, and 
start out afresh in a brand-new life, all clean and 
pure and strong? 

Xow all this is only a feeble hint of what is meant 

99 


> 



100 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


by that glorious promise of the Father, u Behold, I 
make all things new.” 

“ All things ”—why, wake up! what does that 
mean hut —all things ? A new house to live in ? 
Of course; is not a home a part of “ all things ” ? 
New clothes to wear? To be sure. New books to 
read? New songs to hear? New sights to see? 
New experiences to enjoy? New emotions? New 
desires ? New habits ? A new, clean soul ? A new, 
strong, happy life? Have not all of these a right 
among the “ all things ” ? Certainly. t Then they 
are all to be made new. 

Ah, but when? Is it only in some dim, far-off 
world, some vague hereafter, some distant heaven ? 
We are hungry for freshness now. We are tired of 
worn-out, shabby things and of frayed, soiled souls. 
If God will make all things new for us, we should 
so like to enjoy the newness at once. 

And we may. This is God’s new year’s message 
for us. He does not wait till New Year’s Day to 
give it to us, and after New Year’s Day He does 
not cease giving it to us. Every day may be a New 
Year’s Day, and every day may hear the Father’s 
promise, “ Behold this day I make all things 
new.” 

That is because the condition of the newness 
which God promises is not dying, is not entering 
heaven, is not at all a condition of time or a condi¬ 
tion of place. The condition is simply that we re¬ 
ceive Jesus Christ into our hearts, receiving with 


ALL THINGS NEW 


101 


Him newness of life. Wlien we Lave entered into 
the Christ life, then, as Paul wrote, “ the first things 
are passed away ”—all of them; “ behold, they are 
become new ”—every one of them. We are new 
creatures in a new world. 

The reason why we are net constantly exulting in 
newness, in freshness, in delightful novelties, in the 
crisp charm of unworn experiences and possessions, 
is just because we do not really believe the gospel 
of Jesus Christ. For “ gospel ” means, literally, 
“ good news” Once, perhaps, it was news to us, 
startlingly novel, winsomely fresh and vital. But 
the news has grown stale, has become olds. The New 
Testament has lost its newness; has grown to be a 
second Old Testament. We have heard these things 
so much, read them so often, that familiarity has 
worn off their edge, tamed their tang. The good 
news is just as new as ever, but our zest is not new, 
our attention and appreciation are worn out. 

What is that saying of Paul’s ? “ Though our out¬ 
ward man is decaying, yet our inward man is re¬ 
newed day by day.” Of far too many of us the say¬ 
ing might truthfully be changed: “ While our out¬ 
ward man is decaying, our inward man is decaying 
with it.” Otherwise, since the inward man is the 
real man, the world would be renewed for us day by 
day. Every new day would mean a new year and a 
new world. 

Have you read Margaret Prescott Montague’s 
wonderful little book, “ Twenty Minutes of Real- 


102 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


ity ” ? Slie was recovering from a sickness, sitting 
up in a hospital chair, and all of a sudden she saw 
the world with new eyes. All her senses were 
marvelously intensified. She became conscious, 
keenly and amazingly conscious, of the beauty and 
glory around her. She had never imagined such 
sunshine, such colours. The sight of a girl’s hair 
thrilled her as she had never been thrilled before. 
The voices around her were like those of a chorus 
of angels. Every motion took on an unguessed 
grace. For twenty minutes she sat there, wrapped 
in the bliss of it, and then saw the real world grad¬ 
ually fade away into the common, everyday world 
she had always known. She had enjoyed twenty 
minutes of reality. Since then she has had a few 
briefer glimpses of the real world, and after her 
account of the experience was published in The At¬ 
lantic Monthly she received many letters from 
others who also had enjoyed these visions of the real 
world. 

Might not this glory, this freshness, this vivid¬ 
ness, be ours all the time if only we lived real lives ? 
If our hearts were pure, if our ideals were noble, 
if our wills were strong, if we dwelt in Christ and 
He in us, might not those rare moments of reality 
become our constant and permanent experience ? 

“ I wish you a happy new year,” we cry to one 
another. This is the happy new year, this life hid 
with Christ in God. Having that life, we “ serve 
in newness of the spirit.” Having that life, we see 


ALL THINGS NEW 


10a 

“a new heaven and a new earth.” Having that 
life, every minute, every experience, and every pos¬ 
session comes to us new and wonderful, shining 
with all the freshness of creation, and fair with all 
the glory of immortal youths 



XXII 


PRECIOUS TACT 


T ACT is one of the most precious of quali¬ 
ties because it is so rare. If any one 
doubts this, let him count up the persons 
of bis acquaintance whom be could fairly call men 
and women of tact. One of the commonest of dis¬ 
counts is, “ He is an excellent fellow, but be lacks 
tact.” So little do we realize the enormous im¬ 
portance of tact that we do not often perceive what 
a serious detraction such a statement is. 

Tact is precious as precious stones are, not only 
because of their rarity but because of their beauty. 
Tact is one of the loveliest of human qualities. Our 
eyes light up when we see a person whom we know 
to be tactful, quite as they rejoice to behold a won¬ 
derful opal, softly glowing red and green and blue. 
If any characteristic of a man has more value than 
tact, it is closely associated with it and based 
upon it. 

And tact is precious also because of what it can 

buy for its owner. Few prizes of earth but are 

purchased by it, and the more we use it the more 

we have of it. Tact is a magic coin; the spending 

104 


PRECIOUS TACT 


105 


of one leaves us with two. Tact is an open sesame 
to all doors. Tact is a fairy carpet transporting us 
to all lands. Tact is Aladdin’s lamp laying all 
treasures at our feet. 

It is not easy to define this precious thing, for 
it has as many forms and colours as a sunrise. Tact 
is human sympathy in action. Tact is putting 
yourself in another’s place. Tact is imagination 
vitalized by love. Tact is the politeness of the 
heart. Tact is the working out of the Golden 
Rule. 

Tact means touch. Some men have naturally, or 
acquire laboriously, a delicate touch. The typist 
never looks at the keys of her instrument, but hour 
after hour her fingers fly over them, putting into 
permanent form the thoughts of her employer. She 
does her wonderwork by a mechanical tact, “ the 
touch system ” of typewriting. 

Watch a barber shaving. He uses the sharpest 
of tools upon a substance most easily cut, yet he 

4 

glides over the complicated curves of the face with¬ 
out a mishap because his “touch” has been mar¬ 
velously perfected. 

See that blind man reading. Back and forth over 
the lines of raised letters his fingers move smoothly 
and swiftly, and pass the author’s meaning to his 
brain as readily and surely as could his eyes before 
they were ruined. He has cultivated the sense of 
touch till it almost takes the place of the sense of 


106 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


sight, and does for him what tact does for any man 
that has it—interprets the world to him. 

It is tact that enables the violinist and pianist to 
draw marvelous tones from their instruments, and 
it is tact that makes music in human lives. It is 
tact that guides the hand of the artist, and it is tact 
that paints many a picture of brotherhood and help¬ 
fulness. It is tact that designs and erects the 
world’s great buildings, and it is tact that builds 
the structure of society. Whatever the versatile 
sense of touch accomplishes in the mechanical and 
fine arts, that, glorified and sanctified, tact accom¬ 
plishes for the lives and souls of men. 

Nor is the way in which spiritual tact is obtained 
very different from the manner in which material 
touch is developed. 

First must come an understanding of tools and 
substances. The carpenter must know his plane 
and his wood, he must be familiar with each and 
the action of each, or he cannot use the one for the 
smoothening and fashioning of the other. So also 
tact requires an understanding of that strange 
thing, human nature, and of the tools with which 
we mould it, chiefly the puissant tool of speech. 

Next must come persistent and long-continued 
practice. The carpenter spoils many a piece of 
wood before he is able to plane a single board satis¬ 
factorily, and we must expect to make many a 
blunder before we learn how to handle men tact¬ 
fully; but patience and perseverance will prevail. 


PRECIOUS TACT 


107 


The final element of tact is liking, rising into 
love. Without love for his work no artisan or 
artist can fully develop the master’s touch. With¬ 
out love no one can become a tactful master of men. 
Watch a musician’s tender handling of piano or 
violin. See with what reverence a scholar opens 
a hook, or a naturalist goes to the heart of a flower, 
or a machinist tends his engine. Things become 
persons through the alchemy of love; and persons, 
through the same alchemy, become transfigured, al¬ 
most divine. Love is at the bottom of every 
miracle of insight or achievement. 

Three gateways, therefore, one after the other, 
lead to the beautiful palace of tact. Their names 
are Thought, Patience, and Love. We must spend 
time with other men, and delve into their lives till 
we are at home there. We must learn to wait, we 
must repeat our approaches, we must be content 
with slow progress, and never give up. 

These two things we can do, but how can we 
enter the third gate, the gate of love? We cannot 
command love, or manufacture it. If love is an 
essential of tact, is not tact a matter of mere 
chance ? 

dSTot at all; but here, as in all fundamental af¬ 
fairs, we learn our need of God. For God is love. 
God, therefore, is the Fountain of tact. If we 
would love, we must dwell in God and God in us. 
The final certainty of tact is the Spirit of God in 
our hearts. He, when He comes, will show us all 



108 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


things. He will show ns the lovable side of all men, 
and the way to all men’s hearts. He who made the 
sense of touch will develop our tact. He who made 
men will teach us how to deal with men. As we 
are led by Him we shall lovingly and effectively 
lead others, and we shall find the most precious 
thing in all the world. 


XXIII 


ABILITY TO WOBK WITH OTHERS 


T HERE are few solitary occupations. Even 
the poet must get his poems published. 
Even the inventor must employ workmen 
to carry out his ideas. The lives of most toilers are 
inextricably intertwined with the lives of many 
other labourers. “It is not good for man to be 
alone ”; yes, and it is not possible very long. 

Our success in our work depends to a great ex¬ 
tent on our ability to work with others. The clerk 
in a store may be very accurate, very prompt, very 
intelligent, but if he is not also pleasing to the cus¬ 
tomers he will soon be dismissed. The failure of 
some famous statesmen has been caused by their 
inability to co-operate or obtain co-operation. The 
failure of many a business enterprise has been, at 
bottom, the failure of all hands to pull together. 
Life is like a football game: teamwork is more im¬ 
portant than almost any other factor if the victory 
is to be won. 

I was once in the class of a college teacher who 
was a brilliant scholar and a most efficient in¬ 
structor, save for the fact that his pupils, in general, 

hated him. His manner, his words, his entire per- 

109 


110 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING, 



sonality, inspired antagonism. In liis classes the 
mildest students became rebels and tbe bolder stu¬ 
dents became absolutely unmanageable. Every trick 
that was ever played on a college teacber, I think, 
was played on him. He was driven to retirement 
in the prime of life, and died in poverty and disap¬ 
pointment. 

The other day I was talking with a stenographer 
about her employer. He is a man of mediocre 
powers, able to pay only meager salaries; but he ob¬ 
tains the best of service from the best of workers, 
all of whom are enthusiastically loyal to him. “ He 
is so jolly! ” exclaimed the stenographer in ex¬ 
planation. 

The most successful military leaders have won 
their battles not so much because of their genius in 
planning campaigns, devising shrewd thrusts, mass¬ 
ing their forces at the weakest points of their foes, 
as through their almost uncanny ability to arouse the 
personal devotion of their soldiers. As such a com¬ 
mander rides along the line hats fly in the air, hearts 
grow light, and the fire of irresistible valour kindles 
in every eye. A surly, tactless, unpopular general 
is defeated before he advances his troops a foot. 

I have just used a great word. Tact is responsi¬ 
ble for a large part of all that gets done in this 
world. Tact means touch, contact, the vitalizing 
impression of life upon life. Without tact in ma¬ 
chinery there would be no motion, no power. Cog 
must meet cog, band must bear on shaft, steam 


ABILITY TO WORK WITH OTHERS 111 


must press on piston, and thus the work of the 
world is done. The most powerful dynamo ever 
made, whirling all by itself in an isolated house, 
would be as weak and feeble as an infant. Take 
a wire from it and touch it to a wire leading out¬ 
side, and lights burst forth in a thousand homes. 
It is exactly by such contacts that the social ma¬ 
chinery of the world is run. 

Men are in the habit of thinking that this tact 
is inborn in a man, which it often is; and is not 
to be obtained otherwise, which is a great mistake. 
Inborn tact may be increased and tactlessness may 
be changed into tact. This change is one of the 
fruits of Christianity. 

That is because Christianity means sympathy 
and love. Tact involves putting yourself in the 
other person’s place. When you do that you are 
brought together. Try to see through his eyes, to 
feel his experiences. Do not try to impose your¬ 
self upon him; try rather to impose himself upon 
you. In other words, get out of a self-centered 
life and live unselfishly. That is the essence of 
Christianity. 

Who was the most tactful person that ever lived ? 
Of all persons that the world has known, whose 
influence is the greatest? The universal answer 
is, the influence of Jesus Christ. It is because 
He makes the most perfect contact with the largest 
number of souls. Lifted up on the cross, He 
draws all men to Himself. He is the Mine and 


112 THE ROMANCE OE RIGHT LIVING 


we are the branches ; He in ns and we in Him. 
There is no closer contact than that. 

As we get Christ’s Spirit in us, we in turn draw 
close to others, influence them profoundly and 
blessedly, work with them happily and lead them 
to work happily with us. Every attempt at co¬ 
operation without Christ ends soon or late—usually 
soon—in utter failure. Every attempt at co-opera¬ 
tion which He leads, in business, in society, in the 
realms of the spirit, is from the start an assured 
success. Work with Christ, and you and all men 
will work successfully together. 



XXIV 


OPEH GATES 


A ■ A HE ancient town of Plymouth, Massa¬ 
chusetts, celebrated the tercentenary of 

J. the landing of the Pilgrims with many 
forms of hospitality, and proved itself a wonderful 
host, true to the fine Pilgrim traditions. The 
visitor was notified of its purpose many miles out 
of town, on the roads leading to Plymouth, where 
great wooden gates were set up, painted Colonial 
buff, and thrown open as far as they would go. 
On every gate was boldly printed: “ The Gates of 
Historic Plymouth Are Thrown Wide Open.” 
The symbol impressed itself upon the minds of 
thousands because it was so heartily carried out 
into deeds during the summer of 1921. 

It is to be hoped that one of the permanent re¬ 
sults in the lives of many will be not only a more 
generous hospitality in their homes, but the throw¬ 
ing open of the gates of many minds. Eew people 
really possess what we so glibly call “ open minds,” 
though all are fond of saying that they have them. 
Minds are closed by prejudice, timidity, custom, 
sloth, hatred, conceit, stupidity. These pleasant 
agents work under cover, and few of us that har¬ 
bour any of them are conscious of their presence. 

113 



114 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 

They like to have the estates of our souls to them¬ 
selves, they are expert in setting up harriers, and 
they amuse us with the proud pretence that we have 
open minds on all subjects, while at the same time 
they shut and padlock every gate. 

Those who make many calls on business men 
soon classify them in two classes—the open gates 
and the closed gates. In some offices the occupant 
of the desk bends over his papers for the last pos¬ 
sible instant, an acted parable of unwillingness. 
Reluctantly at last he lifts his head. In a surly 
way he growls, “ What can I do for you ? ” He 
might quite as well shout at you, “ State your busi¬ 
ness in a hurry and he out of here, you nui¬ 
sance ! ” 

But in another office the man at the desk wheels 
smartly around at the turn of the doorknob. Very 
probably he is out of his chair with his hand ex¬ 
tended as soon as you open the door. “ Good morn¬ 
ing ! ” he cries, and you realize that it is good. He 
listens to you with all his face, and his interjec¬ 
tions are brisk and eager. You feel like saving the 
time of so courteous a gentleman. You are sur¬ 
prised, when you go out, to see how short a call 
you have made, and to remember how much you 
have put into it. On thinking it over you may 
perceive that you have been the target of a dozen 
searching questions, each bringing out some phase 
of your subject. You have literally poured your¬ 
self into that friendly, open mind. 


OPEN GATES 


115 


Tlie wise old proverb bids ns to entertain stran¬ 
gers hospitably, for sometimes we shall find that we 
have been entertaining angels unawares. This is 
quite as true of ideas as of persons. Many a 
thought, indeed sometimes a whole system of 
thought, which at first we suspect and have half a 
mind to shut the door in its face, turns out to be 
a very angel to our souls, a messenger of heavenly 
tidings, the bringer of comfort and strength. As 
we talk with it and live with it, the strange and 
forbidding aspect softens into a growing beauty, the 
curt sentences blossom and bear fruit, and where 
we fearfully admitted a vagrant, we rejoice in a 
new-found friend. 

Of course we are to prove all these things, and 
to hold fast only to what is good. Open gates—of 
Plymouth or of the mind—are foolishly open if 
there is no police force behind them. The guar¬ 
dians of the law handled the immense crowds that 
thronged the little town with a fine mixture of 
courtesy and firmness. If there were pickpockets, 
they were put expeditiously out of the way; but the 
honest stranger was not regarded as a potential 
pickpocket. 

Thus also the open-gated mind will give all ideas 
a chance to prove themselves, but will be quick to 
expel all that prove themselves unworthy, all that 
abuse the privilege of hospitality. Better not open 
the gates at all than welcome a warring and dis- 


116 THE romance of right living 


cordant company, angels and archangels, thieves 
and murderers. 

But with this necessary qualification, how glori¬ 
ous is the open mind! What tribute of books flows 
into it—poems and stories, history and biography, 
science and travel! It gets plunder from Herodotus 
and McMaster, from Homer and Kipling, from 
Fielding and 0. Henry. And what a rare proces¬ 
sion of intelligences and experiences moves thither 
—the plumber and the professor, hoys and girls and 
nonagenarians, Mayor Magnus and the bookkeeper 
of Cohen and Einstein! 

Such a mind approaches all with expectation. It 
hopes all things from all men. It counts no life 
common or unclean until it tests it. It has the 
Saviour’s lovely catholicity of receptiveness. If it 
does not find amid the entering throng a John to 
give, it may find a leper with a plea for healing. 
And who will say which did the most for the 
Saviour, the loving and understanding John or the 
healed and grateful leper ? 

“ Opportunity ” means “ the open gate.” Gates 
may be open to take in or to give out. Open minds 
mean duty as well as enrichment, responsibility as 
well as privilege. From him to whom much is 
given, much is required. Plymouth’s open gates 
meant the inflow of some little wealth to the town, 
we hope; but they were thrown open that far more 
wealth might go out from the town, a wealth of 


OPEN GATES 


117 


patriotic inspiration that has enriched the entire 
land. 

And so let us keep open house in our souls. Let 
us he wide awake and kindly toward all men and 
all ideas. Let us draw into our kingdom from 
many lands, and make sure that our exports are 
equal to our imports. Freely let us receive, and as 
freely give. 


XXV 


READY! 


** AT* HAT which the fool does in the end,” 
says a shrewd Spanish proverb, “ the 
-L wise man does in the beginning.” In 
many cases, however, the proverb points out only 
half the mischief, for often the procrastinator does 
not do the thing “ in the end ” any more than “ in 
the beginning.” Indeed, another Spanish proverb 
comes nearer the mark when it decisively asserts, 
“ By the street of By-and-By one arrives at the 
house of Xever.” 

The longer time we live, the more we distrust 
time, if we are observant. We are always having 
less time than we think. We cannot get used to the 
swiftness of time. Time steals up behind us un¬ 
awares, and catches us with our most cherished 
plans all unaccomplished. 

There is only one way to get the better of Master 

Time, and that is to do at once the thing which, a 

century or ten centuries hence, we shall be glad to 

have done at once. Put yourselves in imagination 

far ahead in your life, your endless life. Get the 

point of view, the just proportions, of eternity. 

Most of us have no more time or strength than will 

118 


READY! 


119 


suffice for the most important things. If we attend 
first to the trifles, we shall attend to nothing else. 

The foolish virgins of to-day have much to keep 
them from the filling of their lamps. They have to 
make their wedding finery, or get it made for them. 
They have to arrange their hair in elaborate fashion. 
The night before, they are up late attending an¬ 
other party. They get lost in an exciting novel, 
and the time goes before they know it. Ho one is at 
a loss for excuses for procrastination. 

And the trifles that keep us from being ready for 
the great things may easily appear more important 
than the great things. Trifles have loose skins, they 
can swell out to twice their real size. Form the 
habit of regarding trifles, and they will speedily 
fill the entire horizon of your life. 

Carleton Jencks was the president of the Chris¬ 
tian Endeavour Society on board the United States 
Steamship Maine. As it lay in Havana Harbour 
one evening, he was conducting a prayer meeting of 
the society. His theme was “I am ready,” and 
those were the last words of his talk to the society. 
That night came the terrible explosion that killed 
'Carleton Jencks and so many others, and led 
swiftly to the Spanish-American War. 

How fortunate for Carleton Jencks that he had 
lived so nobly as always to be ready, since his Lord 
summoned him with no warning. 

For the same reason every one of us should be 
ready. Our ship sails an unknown sea. Perils are 


120 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


all around us. No one can be sure that the next 
minute will not he the supreme minute of his life. 
No one can he certain of anything except that un¬ 
certainties fill the future. 

The young, if they think of the matter at all, 
hold that readiness is the duty of the middle-aged; 
the middle-aged agree that old folks should he ready 
for the serious things of life; while the old folks, 
if they reached old age carelessly, will doubtless con¬ 
tinue carelessly in it. Readiness is a habit, to he 
learned in youth and cultivated through old age, 
since unreadiness also is a habit and is easily 
fixed. 

Maltbie D. Babcock, the brilliant and beloved 
young minister w T hose life ended so suddenly and so 
tragically, once wrote: “ No loving word was ever 
spoken, no glad deed was ever done, ‘ to-morrow.’ 
To-day holds life and death, character and destiny, 
in its hands.” Well did he fill his own days with 
loving service, and so he was ready for his to-mor¬ 
rows as they came. 

Charles Dickens was another apostle of readiness. 
Few men have crowded so much into their days as 
he did, or been so strenuous workers. “ If you 
think,” he once wrote, “that you can achieve any¬ 
thing great or small by doing it only by fits and 
starts, put that erroneous idea out of your head at 
once.” Nothing with him was “ by fits and starts.” 
He accomplished so much because he was always at 
it. He was ready for his next story because he was 


READY! 


121 


incessantly gathering story material. His lamp was 
always full of oil. 

There is just one thing we are not to be ready 
for, and that is sin! As Dr. Guthrie shrewdly ad¬ 
vised his hearers, “If you intend to do a mean 
thing, wait till to-morrow; if you are to do a noblo 
thing, do it now!” The two injunctions go to¬ 
gether. If we fill our lives full of good, there will 
he no room for the evil. Those that are always 
ready for God will never he ready for the 'Adver¬ 
sary. 


XXVI 


THE TYRANNY OF TRIFLES 


W HY is it that when you meet another 
person point blank on a narrow way, 
one of you yields the path and the other 
goes straight on ? What determines who shall yield ? 
The theory has been advanced that a swift eye-duel 
takes place, and the weaker will, thus determined, 
makes way for the stronger. That is pure guesswork. 

William James, the philosopher, used to puzzle 
his pupils with a discussion of why, when he came 
to a fork in the Harvard campus path, one path 
leading around University Hall to the right and 
the other to the left, he should promptly take either 
the one or the other, and not remain there forever 
in indecision. 

In one of George Herbert Palmer’s fascinating 
lectures he has a similar illustration. He imagines 
himself in bed on a frosty morning, loath to get up. 
He thinks of a dozen reasons why he should get up, 
and of a dozen reasons why he should remain in his 
snug burrow. He rehearses the arguments pains¬ 
takingly, but there is no result. Suddenly he throws 
hack the bedclothes and finds himself out on the 
floor. How did he get there? What pulled the 

trigger of his will ? No one knows. 

122 


THE TYRANNY OF TRIFLES 


123 


Robert Frost, in a thoughtful poem, describes two 
branching paths through the woods; he is undecided 
which to follow. At last he chooses the path to the 
right, for no special reason, perhaps only because 
the grass on that path is a little less worn. And yet, 
muses the poet, eons hence as he looks back upon 
this earth life he may say, “I took the right-hand 
path that day, and that made all the difference.” 

The writer knows a young man whose conscience 
at one time almost drove him insane as he meditated 
on such matters as these. He would see a hoy lean¬ 
ing on a fence, and would walk past him on his 
errand. Half an hour later he would think of that 
boy, would say to himself that he might have stopped 
and talked with him about the Christian life and 
might thereby have influenced him for eternity. 
Then he would go back, would fail to find the boy, 
and would lie awake all night torturing himself 
with the thought of his remissness. 

More persons than we often realize are similarly 
under the tyranny of trifles. The hold of all super¬ 
stitions is only one form of this tyranny. Some of 
the strongest minds the world has known—for ex¬ 
ample, that of Samuel Johnson—have been victims 
of this obsession. 

Now trifles are often of vast importance, and des¬ 
tinies often hang upon them; but no destiny worth 
while ever comes to a man who is the slave of trifles. 
Christ’s crown is reserved for the stanch soul that 


124 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


fixes his gaze on the big thing, and brushes aside all 
the little things on his way toward the goal. 

The Christian, like his Master, will have a keen 
eye for relative values. He will know when he 
dare take time for the engrossing details, and when 
he must forget them. Neatly arranged hair is im¬ 
portant, sometimes; hut to stop in the middle of a 
race and brush one’s hair will lose the race, and the 
hair will remain ungarlanded. 

It is a good plan to review one’s day’s work at 
night and see whether it might have been improved; 
but there are times when the best way to make sure 
of an improvement the next day is to go right to 
sleep, forgetting all about it. It is a good plan to 
be very solicitous regarding human relationships, 
eager for openings for evangelism, with a conscience 
sensitive to note all one’s sloth and laxness; but 
sometimes it is best not only for ourselves but also 
for other folks that we push right through with our 
work, quite regardless of other folks. 

Nothing in living will take the place of sturdy 
common sense. When we are perplexed about this 
matter and that, when we cannot be sure whether 
we are confronted by a trifle or by a supreme issue, 
it is good to fall back on what we know to be the 
opinion of the majority. What would stodgy Mrs. 

A- and mediocre Mr. B-- and gruff 

Hr. C- and commonplace Miss D—♦- 

think of our fears, our scruples, our anxious de¬ 
bates of conscience and duty ? Would they laugh at 






THE TYRANNY OF TRIFLES 


125 


them, shrug their capable shoulders, tap their un¬ 
wrinkled foreheads ? Then we may well go on our 
way more serenely and allow time to decide for us. 

A sense of humour is a good judge of trifles. How 
keen is a comedian after all exaggeration of values! 
How ready is a caricaturist to ridicule unrealities! 
If we can laugh at our frets and worries, we shall 
send them flying. Good cheer clears the air of 
vapours, and allows us to see distinctly where our 
pathway lies. 

Above all, close companionship with Jesus Christ 
will free us from the tyranny of trifles. How sure 
was every step He took! He knew when to concern. 
Himself with the little things and when to disregard 
them for the large things. He knew when to tarry 
at the well with the woman of Sychar, and when to 
cleave the Nazareth mob and go on His way. He 
could feed the five thousand, and order the frag¬ 
ments gathered up. He could still the storm, and 
He could point out a school of fish. 

We can have the mind of Christ. To that mind 
all relative values are clear-cut. It is the mind of 
the Creator, who ordained the laws of the universe, 
and yet fashioned every vein in a butterfly’s wing; 
who sent Orion spinning down the heavens, and yet 
notes the fall of a sparrow. Nothing will be too 
small for us, if we have the mind of Christ; and 
nothing trivial will be permitted to stand between 
us and the things that count the most. 


XXVII 


HOW IS YOUR HEAD SET OX ? 

T HE few skulls of human beings which have 
been found in gravel beds that were 
formed far earlier than the earliest re¬ 
corded history of mankind show us many bestial 
characteristics in these ancestors of our race. They 
were men, but of the crudest sort. They had re¬ 
treating foreheads, almost no chins, great, protrud¬ 
ing lips, and very little of the higher portions of 
the brain, the thought-producing portions. Most 
convincing, however, as hinting of the brute, is the 
hole in the skull where the backbone fits on, the hole 
through which passed the spinal cord. This hole 
is far back in the ancient skulls, and moves forward 
gradually as we examine skulls dating nearer our 
modern days. Present-day skulls are well balanced 
in the middle; their owners can hold up their heads. 
Prehistoric skulls were pivoted at the rear, and 
overweighted in front; their owners could not hold 
up their heads, any more than cows can, or pigs. 
They went around with their eyes and their thoughts 
fixed upon the ground. 

It would be well if we could all bear in mind this 

bit of our human history. Even yet, in our day of 

126 


HOW IS YOUR HEAD SET ON? 127 


straight-walking men, we meet many whose heads 
are set on in the prehistoric fashion—if not the 
heads of their bodies, at any rate the far more im¬ 
portant heads of their souls. 

Usually they do not realize it; or, if they realize 
it, they do not care, they may even he proud of it. 
“ I am practical/’ says such a hang head. “ I keep 
my ear to the ground. No stargazing about me. I 
could buy out any ten men in my town. Books ? I 
read my ledger and the market reports. Church ? 
I make good use of Sunday in my office, while the 
other fellows are loafing. Family? I’ll leave them 
the biggest fortune in Brown County, all in govern¬ 
ment and municipal bonds. Ideals ? What do you 
mean by ‘ ideals ’ ? ” 

Many a man who would be much distressed and 
thoroughly ashamed if he had a malformed neck 
which held his head bent downward, nevertheless 
goes through life with his soul bent double like a 
back-broken cripple. He would take his neck to the 
best surgeon in the country; he snaps his fingers at 
the surgeons of souls. 

Of course we are not urging that men’s souls any 
more than their heads should be set on in such wise 
that they lean backward. It would be as disastrous 
to be forced to gaze always at the sky as to have our 
countenances fastened upon the ground. As the 
skull opening for the spinal column moved forward, 
it came to a stopping point when it reached the cen¬ 
tral point: the well-balanced head, poised on the 


128 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


erect body, looking straight ahead, and able to turn 
with equal ease to the ground and the sky. Any fur¬ 
ther movement forward would be no real progress, 
but a backward step in human development. 

Looked at in this way, to call a person “ level¬ 
headed ” is indeed high praise. It implies good 
sense for the next world as well as for this world. 
It expresses the golden mean between empty ideal¬ 
ism and barren practicality. It means tilling the 
ground when food is needed and climbing the moun¬ 
tains when inspiration is needed. It is a synonym 
of sure-footed progress. 

It is very hard to convince any one that his head 
is set on wrongly. If he is a ground-gazer, he calls 
it mere prudence; if he is a moon-gazer, he calls it 
high thinking. Each has to look at the other view 
to realize its comfort or beauty; and how can he, if 
his head is set on wrong ? 

But if it is hard to correct another, it is easy to 
correct one’s self, provided only that one is honest 
and desirous of the best. 

For example, ask yourself such questions as these: 
Is it easy for me to give—to give money ? or time ? 
or sympathy? Is prayer a joy to me and Bible- 
reading a delight? Do I like the best poetry, 
Shakespeare, Milton, Tennyson, Browning? Does a 
sunset or sunrise or the sight of the starrv heavens 
fill me with awe and rapture? Do I long for the 
Lord’s Day and for the assembly of the Lord’s peo¬ 
ple? Do I live in the lives of others, finding my 



HOW IS YOUR HEAD SET ON? 129 


chief sorrow in their grief and my chief joy in their 
happiness ? If the answer to such questions as these 
must be “ No/ 7 then the fulcrum of your head is set 
too far back, you are an earth-gazer. 

Suppose, on the contrary, you test yourself with 
such inquiries as the following: Do my hopes and 
plans result in definite accomplishment ? Do others 
turn to me when they want things done? Am I 
earning my own livelihood and the livelihood of 
those dependent on me, and setting aside a proper 
provision for sickness and old age? Do I make a 
wise use of my time ? Am I an industrious and 
valued worker? Am I keeping my body in good 
health, and developing its strength and skill? Am 
I in touch with affairs, a real factor in the world 
around me ? If in reply to such questions you must 
sadly say “ No/ 7 then the fulcrum of your head is 
too far forward and your head is tipped backward, 
you are a moon-gazer. 

And the remedy is in your own hands. You can¬ 
not change the position of your spinal column, but 
you can change the inclination of your soul. Y T ou 
can set your affections on things above, if they are 
engrossed with things below. Or if, on the con¬ 
trary, your castles are all in the air, you can build 
solid foundations under them. You can be your 
own surgeon, with the aid of the Good Physician of 
souls. 


XXVIII 


HACK WOKK 

T HE words, “ hack work/ 7 bring up a picture 
of a scene almost forgotten already in our 
large and bustling cities. They remind us 
of the old-style back, swaying, rickety, dusty inside 
and out, tattered, drafty, with bard and narrow 
seats, awkward to enter, equally awkward to leave. 
They also recall the old-time back horse, thin and 
discouraged, switching bis tail at the oppressive flies, 
bis bead bung down, his legs plodding at a poor, 
dying rate, galvanized into brief energy only by the 
application of the driver’s broken whip. The back 
stood at its post long hours at a time, the forlorn 
driver dozing in bis seat, and when the rare passen¬ 
ger forced himself into notice the outfit lumbered 
painfully away, evidently sorry to be disturbed. 

That is precisely the picture of back work. It is 
slovenly, dreary, inefficient. There is no heart in it, 
no life. It is done from necessity or merely from 
habit. The back worker is never so happy as when 
be can leave bis work, and comes back to it with lag¬ 
ging steps. “ I never wrote a line because I wanted 
to/ 7 once confessed a man whose task was writing for 

the press. He was a back writer. Thus also there 

130 


HAGK WORK 


131 


are hack teachers and hack lawyers and hack clerks 
and hack carpenters and hack cooks. Hack work 
and hack workers are everywhere. 

How hack work cannot be good work, any more 
than hack transportation was an admirable mode of 
travel. The hack worker may he conscientious, but 
he leaves out of his labour the element which gives 
it its chief value, that of personal interest. The 
writer to whom writing is a bore will surely bore his 
readers. The teacher who despises teaching will he 
despised by his pupils. The cook who loathes cook¬ 
ing will turn out indigestible viands. “ Ho profit 
grows where is no pleasure ta’en,” said Shakespeare 
truly. 

But now, in all our large cities and in many of 
the smaller towns, the taxi has replaced the hack. 
“ Taxi ” comes from a Greek word that means 
u swift,” and well does the vehicle live up to its 
name. Only a few days ago the writer took a mad 
taxi ride in Chicago which he will not soon forget. 
He was about a mile from the railway station, and 
his train would start in five minutes for the East. 
He had to catch that train, and a taxi fortunately 
slipped into sight. A word to the driver, and off 
we dashed through Chicago’s busy streets, darting 
here, crowding in there, swirling around corners on 
one wheel, climbing insanely over curbstones, flying 
on the wings of the wind, and bringing up at the sta¬ 
tion just in time. Imagine the poor old hack and 
hack horse doing that trick! My train would have 


132 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


left the station before the driver had unlimbered his 
whip. 

Now, if you are a hack, the thing for you to do 
is to convert yourself into a taxi! 

The thing can be done. It can be done more 
easily in the world of spirit than in the world of 
matter. Any one can do it, even the most con¬ 
firmed old grind and drudge in the world, if he 
will set about it in the right way. 

Two things make a taxi, gasoline and battery: 
the gasoline for potential energy, the electric bat¬ 
tery to transform the potential energy into actual 
energy, to explode it. All the rest, the engine, the 
gears, the wheels, are only contrivances through 
which the gasoline and battery work, contrivances 
like the legs of the horse and the wheels and body 
of the hack. 

What is the gasoline that will convert your hack 
work into taxi work ? It is your enthusiasm. And 
what is the electric spark that will change your en¬ 
thusiasm into actual power ? It is the flame of the 
Holy Spirit of God. Put the two together—the 
Spirit’s ardour and your ardour, and nothing that 
God wants you to do is impossible to you. All 
your tasks will move swiftly and joyfully to the 
goal of the highest success. 

“ But I cannot get up any enthusiasm for my 
work,” you whine. 

Exactly; that is why you are a hack; and you 


HACK WORK 


133 


will remain a hack to the end of your days if you 
do not change that “ cannot ” into “ can.” 

For of course you can. Probably you do not 
know enough about your work. You have never 
made a real study of it. You have never even 
imagined its fine points, its many possibilities, its 
possible outreaches. You are a clerk? Read a 
hook on the psychology of salesmanship! You are 
a cook ? Learn what a calorie is, what proteids 
are! You are a railroad hrakeman? Study the 
science and history of railroading and prepare to 
he the president of the road! There is a beautiful 
science in everything, even in digging a ditch. 
Learn the science, work in harmony with it, and 
you will become an enthusiast. 

And of course you will not say that you cannot 
obtain for your work the fire of the Holy Spirit. 
You know that He is given to all that ask for Him. 
You know that He is eager to come to men, eager 
to help them in their tasks. You know that there 
need he no delay: an instant’s petition, an instan¬ 
taneous response. 

Oh, the difference when God’s Spirit gets into 
a life! Plans are exalted, purposes ennobled. All 
circumstances are lifted into the realm of romance. 
Our desires are purified and enormously strength¬ 
ened. Our will becomes an irresistible force. A 
wholly new exhilaration thrills through us. The 
tasks that have been loathsome we now long for. 
The work that has dragged now leaps and runs. 


134’ THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


We have ceased to he hacks and have become taxis, 
u swifts ” in very truth. We mount up with wings 
as eagles, we run and do not grow weary, and we 
walk and do not faint. 


XXIX 


GIVEX TO GOD 

I LIVE near the missionary home of one of the 
large denominations, a beautiful building in 
which the children of missionaries are cared 
for while their parents are at work on the mission 
fields of China, Japan, India, Africa, all the world. 
These missionaries want their children to grow up 
as good Americans; and so when they are about 
ten years old they bring them to this home, and 
leave them there for their public-school training, 
after which they are sent off to college. The 
parents do not see them except once in seven years, 
as they return for their sabbatical year at home. 

The parting from these beautiful boys and girls 
is as sad a thing as one could see in all the world, 
and wrings one’s heart to witness or think about; 
and yet both missionaries and their children endure 
it gladly for the sake of their Master and Ilis work 
among men. The missionaries have given them¬ 
selves to God, and when they made that gift they 
kept back nothing, not even the thing they valued 
most, their children. The children also have given 
themselves to God. They have received the mis¬ 
sionary spirit, and many of them become mission¬ 
aries in their turn. When they yielded themselves 

135 



136 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


to God they yielded also their chief joy, the loving 
care of father and mother. This' is the beautiful 
drama of consecration which I have seen going on 
for many years in our Aubumdale missionary 
home. 

All real gifts to God are of this sort—whole¬ 
hearted, ready, exultant. We have a phrase, u given 
in marriage,” and it is like that when one is given 
to God. u With all my worldly goods I thee en¬ 
dow ” is only a formal and very unnecessary part 
of a true wedding. When two people really love 
each other, each would rather the other used a pos¬ 
session than use it himself or herself. The height 
of enjoyment is to use things in common. And the 
Bible uses the same illustration, picturing the 
Church as the bride of Christ. 

All development lies along the line of self¬ 
giving. If the seed lived for itself, and did not 
fling itself out happily into the air, there would 
be no blossom or tree. Good teachers are made by 
interest in their pupils. Men of business succeed 
as they believe in their goods and are eager for all 
the world to have them. The higher the giving, 
the nobler the development. Phillips Brooks once 
said, “ One of the blessings of your consecration to 
Christ will be that in Him will open up to you as 
a pattern your possible self as God sees it.” The 
self that is given to God becomes Godlike, however 
unworthy it may have been at the start. 

The fundamental fact is that God can give Him- 


GIVEN TO GOD 


137 


self wholly to men only as they give themselves 
wholly to Him. Make a break in the wire so that 
it does not yield itself fully to the electricity, and 
the dynamo can do no work along that circuit. The 
wheels of the automobile must be geared stoutly 
to the engine, or the gasoline will explode in vain, 
and the car will stand motionless. “ If we would 
know the power of Christ’s life,” says J. Stuart 
Holden, “ Christ must know the power of our com¬ 
plete surrender to Him.” 

So this giving of ourselves to God is not a duty 
but a wonderful privilege. No young man counts 
it a hardship to be admitted to membership in a 
prosperous firm, but gives himself to it gladly. 
Men struggle for years with all the energies of body 
and mind, that they may have the glory of giving 
themselves to some high office, some position of 
splendid responsibility. When we give ourselves to 
God we are admitted into the most exalted partner¬ 
ship, inducted into the most glorious office, even 
placed beside Him on His throne. 

The danger is that we shall allow our lesser giv¬ 
ings to overshadow this one supreme giving. We 
need to give ourselves in many ways, to many per¬ 
sons and occupations. We must give ourselves to 
our family, our business, our studies, our neigh¬ 
bours and friends and employers, our work in the 
world. God would not have it otherwise. Giving 
ourselves to all these is a part of our giving our¬ 
selves to Him. 


138 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


But oh, the giving of ourselves to Him must 
come first! Until the wire is joined to the dynamo, 
how useless it is to join it to the light bulb in your 
house! Seek first the Kingdom of God, and then 
all things will be effectively added to you—your 
dear ones, your tasks, your possessions, your life 
itself. Put first things first in your giving, and 
your receiving will never end. 



XXX 


“ THANK YOU! ” 

S OME folks seem to find it very difficult to 
say “ Thank you! ” They are over-inde¬ 
pendent, and are afraid of coming under 
obligation to any one. Or, they are exceedingly 
reserved, and the expression of any gratitude ap¬ 
pears to be an unveiling of their heart’s secrets. 
Or, they are basely suspicious, and cannot believe 
that any one would do them a kindness without an 
ulterior motive. Or, they are merely awkward, 
and fail to find adequate words for their genuine 
thankfulness. Or, they are hugely conceited, and 
believe that whatever is done for them is only their 
due. Or, they are grasping and avaricious and 
covetous, always dissatisfied with benefits because 
always expecting more than they receive. There 
are many reasons why certain persons fail to say 
u Thank you! ” 

On the other hand, some folks find it very easy 

and delightful to say “ Thank you! ” They love 

to be “ beholden ” to others, for they rejoice in 

“ the ties that bind our hearts in Christian love.” 

They count it almost a sin to be stingy in gratitude 

where others have been generous in giving. They 

139 


140 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


love so widely and so heartily that they readily at¬ 
tribute such love to others. They have practised 
saying “ Thank you! ” until it has become instinc¬ 
tive and graceful. They are humble, and consider 
any attention shown them to be more than they 
deserve. They are always contented, and so are 
“ thankful for small favours/ 7 and magnify them 
into large favours. For these reasons and many 
others these happy spirits are always saying 
“ Thank you! ” 

Now we do not confer kindnesses just for the 
sake of being thanked. We benefit others because 
of a sense of justice, a feeling of their need, and 
a real affection for them. Many persons even find 
it disagreeable and awkward to be thanked, and 
avoid expressions of gratitude whenever they can, 
doing their kindnesses anonymously and under 
cover. This feeling represents a lack in those giv¬ 
ers perhaps, a sensitiveness that is out of touch 
with human brotherhood; but it is often present, 
and we cannot always be sure that we are giving 
pleasure when we say “ Thank you! ” however 
heartily. 

All the more need, then, of saying it so finely, 
so beautifully, so lovingly, that the little ceremony 
will mean much on both sides. Even if the gift is 
made ungraciously, let it be taken graciously. 
Even if it is presented awkwardly, let it be received 
with royal tact. 

There are not many occasions, after all, when 


THANK YOU! 


141 


lives make contact with one another. We move in 
strangely separate orbits, and are sadly ignorant of 
one another’s joys and sorrows, fears and hopes, 
failures and successes. A gift is a point of con¬ 
tact. In a gift two lives really touch; and it is a 
shame if the contact is only that of dead wires, not 
of wires alive with the electricity of love. The op¬ 
portunity to say “ Thank you! ” is one of life’s 
rare opportunities to draw very close to another 
soul. It is especially precious because the oppor¬ 
tunity has come to us, we have not had to go out 
and seek it. 

No one will meet this opportunity well without 
practice. How can we practise saying “ Thank 
you! ” without having gifts that call for grati¬ 
tude ? 

Ah, but we have them! We have them all the 
time. We can practise saying “ Thank you!” 
every day and every hour. 

Whoever has insight into his own life and the 
world around him knows that they are fairly over¬ 
flowing with occasions for gratitude. “ This goodly 
frame, the earth,” is a cornucopia of joys, a 
crowded basket of blessings. Every day begins 
with a tumbling heap of them, the renewing of life, 
the glad inrush of light, the morning scents, the 
flood of colour, the eostacy of sound, the delights 
of motion, the satisfaction of food, the comforts of 
home, the love of our dear ones, the blessings of the 
Bible, the infinite honour of prayer! And as the 


142 ffiHE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


day proceeds every instant of it brings new incen¬ 
tives to praise. The responsive soul is bathed in 
thanksgiving as a sunny atmosphere, is saying 
“ Thank you! ” constantly to God, and so is ever 
in the mood to say “ Thank you! ” to men. 

Indeed, like all other graces, the grace of grati¬ 
tude is itself a gift from the grace of God. We 
do not come by it naturally but supematurally. 
Just as the lower animals are without gratitude ex¬ 
cept as, in such cases as the dog, the cat, and the 
horse, they have been longest with man and have 
caught something of his spirit, so men have this 
high grace quite in proportion as their lives are 
close to God and have caught His Spirit. Grati¬ 
tude is a flower of love, and “ God is love.” All 
that love are born of God, and so are all that are 
truly grateful. 

The cure for lack of gratitude is more prayer. 
Only as we live in communion with the Lord of 
all grace can this grace become ours. “ We love, 
because He first loved us,” and because He first 
loved us we have this power of love which is called 
gratitude. The nearer we come to God, the easier 
and more delightful we shall find it to say “ Thank 
you! ” 

Gratitude, therefore, is far from being mere 
politeness. Gratitude reaches to the very center of 
life. Gratitude is one of the most certain tests of 
character. Saying “ Thank you! ” is a divine ordi¬ 
nance, the God-blessed meeting of two souls. If 


THANK YOU! 


143 


we are careless about it, we are careless concerning 
our eternal interests and those of other men; but 
if we enter into the spirit of it and exalt it in our 
plans and our affections, we shall be exalted by it, 
and lifted very high in the joys and powers of the 
heavenly world. 


XXXI 


THE WAY THAT HAS ITS WAY 

D URIHG the World War many thousands— 
indeed, millions—of men had occasion to 
think about the voice of command. 

The voice of command is the voice that gets 
obeyed. Some otherwise excellent officers did not 
have it. They would issue their orders in a hesi¬ 
tant and apologetic way, or in a voice that was 
husky or flabby. While they were talking to their 
men the minds of the latter would wander, and 
their eyes as well. 

In the very companies of these officers would he 
sergeants or even corporals whose first syllable 
stirred the blood, sent a responsive thrill through 
nerve and muscle, and shot the soldier to his feet. 
They had the voice of command. 

There is much also in the hearing of command. 
Some officers had an authoritative look. Alert, 
splendidly poised, you would think them Xapoleons 
or Alexanders. They carried themselves as persons 
horn to the purple, accustomed to issuing orders and 
receiving obedience. 

Others, on the other hand, though in positions of 

considerable authority, received scanty respect be- 

144 



THE WAY THAT HAS ITS WAY 145 


cause their hearing was slipshod; they did not look 
the part of commander. They were not well set 1 
up, they did not carry themselves as soldiers 
should. 

Now in war it is the business of an officer to 
have his way. He must insist upon it. That offi¬ 
cers should he obeyed is a matter of victory or de¬ 
feat, of life or death, of success or failure for a 
great cause. So necessary is it that officers should 
be obeyed that the death penalty hangs over the 
man who disobeys, and helps the commander to 
have his way even if his voice and bearing would 
never get it for him. 

And in the long, steady warfare of life it is 
equally necessary for the Christian warrior to have 
his way. No egotism, no pride, no obstinacy or 
ambition, prompts Christians to insist on their 
way; only the fact that their way is the way of 
their Master, of Him who is the Way. The King¬ 
dom of God, the happiness or woe of all mankind, 
depend on Christians getting their way, and they 
are perfectly right in urging it. It is their duty 
to do so. 

Therefore it is just as necessary for the Christian 
as for the lieutenant, the captain, or the colonel, 
to cultivate the way that has its way. Whatever 
it may be—voice, or bearing, or structure of sen¬ 
tences, or clothing, or habits of life, or habits of 
thought—whatever contributes to the effectiveness 
of character, to positive and immediate influence 




146 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


over others, must he counted in as an essential part 
of a Christian’s duty. It is our business to have 
a way with us that is irresistible. 

This way is not the same with all Christians, and 
nothing here is more foolish than imitation. The 
authority of a Christian is a part of himself, and 
partakes of his own character. One man’s secret 
of leadership is never another’s. 

Moreover, this quality of leadership permeates 
all that a leader is or does. The way that has its 
way may be discerned even in a person’s handwrit¬ 
ing, though leaders have the widest diversity of 
chirographies; the vigour of strong personalities is 
to he discerned in them all. 

But, though the outward phases of leadership 
are as varied as personalities are varied, the inner 
reality and source of it is uniform. The way that 
has its way is essentially a spiritual quality. Who¬ 
ever has received the keys of the Kingdom of 
Heaven has the Petrine characteristics, he is a rock, 
strong as a rock, enduring as a rock, vibrant as a 
rock to the hammer of fate, and yet tender as the 
shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Being 
all this, the same qualities of sturdiness, of firm¬ 
ness, of resonance, of kindliness, flash out in word 
or deed, in hearing or attire, in all the numberless 
concomitants of life. Leadership is an affair of 
the soul. 

That is why whoever would have his way with 
men must not fritter away his time with surface 


THE WAY THAT HAS ITS WAY 147 


matters. No elocutionist can teach the voice of 
command, no actor can teach the bearing of com¬ 
mand, no penman or college professor of English 
can teach authoritative writing. The soldier must 
have or obtain the spirit of an officer, or he will be 
only a private in an officer’s uniform. The Chris¬ 
tian must not think about his uniform or accoutre¬ 
ments, but about his spirit, if he would be a 
leader. 

And that is why Christ coupled with the promise 
of becoming fishers of men the command to fol¬ 
low Him. It is only by long fellowship with 
Christ that Christ’s disciples can gain Christ’s in¬ 
fluence over human souls. Our Lord draws all men 
to Himself because He is lifted up on the cross of 
eternal sacrifice. We also gain a like drawing 
power as we are crucified with Christ. “ Y r e are 
my friends,” said Christ, u if ye do the things 
which I command you.” And if we thus become 
friends of Christ His power of command passes 
into us. This is one of the “ all things ” that are 
ours because we are Christ’s. 

By living with even a human being we absorb 
his ways. If they are ways that have their way, 
we also become more persuasive, more convincing, 
more authoritative. Thus also by living with 
Christ, we in Him and He in us, we get His ways, 
and they are the ways of command, the ways that 
compel obedience, though no one thinks of them ex¬ 
cept as the ways of love and wisdom. 


148 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


It is a pleasure to have our way. It is a joy 
to feel influence going out from us, to know that 
our life is leading others along right and h&ppy 
paths. This is one of the entirely legitimate joys 
of the Christian, because his way is not his own, 
but his Master’s. The Christian has thus a right 
to the way that has its way, and no one else on earth 
has a right to it. 


XXXII 

OVERCOMING OUR PREJUDICES 


F EW words in the English language are so sig¬ 
nificant as the word “ prejudice.” It means 
pre-judgment, decision regarding a person 
or a thing made before one has sufficient knowledge 
to warrant a judgment. The implication of the 
word itself is that some judgments are unwise, and 
fundamentally unrighteous. To judge before we 
know enough to judge is to “ jndge unjust judg¬ 
ments.” The implication of the word is that if we 
knew more about the person or the thing our opin¬ 
ion would be different, probably far more favour¬ 
able. 

It is true that most of our prejudices are horn 
of ignorance. Rich people have a prejudice against 
poor people until they learn how much nobility and 
grace may dwell beneath a threadbare coat. Poor 
people have a prejudice against rich people until 
they discover how sympathetic the wealthy, often 
are, and how eager to help. Presbyterians may 
have prejudices against Methodists and Methodists 
against Lutherans, hut coming to know some real 
Christian of another faith will quickly break down 
the barrier. 


149 


150 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


This is because prejudices are based on unrea¬ 
sonable generalizations, and slink away before a 
single disproving example. We say that no per¬ 
son with a receding chin can be anything but a fool; 
then we meet some one who has a receding chin, 
but turns out to be a very wise man, and at once 
we perceive that brains are not kept in jawbones. 

Now if prejudices mean ignorance 1 , they should 
be overcome. We do not want to go through the 
world blind to the real qualities of persons and 
things, without the stimulus and joy of their ex¬ 
cellencies, living lives barren of much of the friend¬ 
ship and many of the admirations that might have 
been ours. We want to live the abundant life, and 
that is only possible when all the windows and 
doors of our minds are open to receive all that is 
good and fair and noble. 

There is another reason why prejudices are to 
be overcome, and that is because they are weaken¬ 
ing and annoying. Form a prejudice against Jews, 
and the world will seem full of them, and the Jew¬ 
ish menace will rise like a thundercloud over our 
nation. Form a prejudice against the smell of pep¬ 
permint and you will be harassed everywhere by 
that odour. Prejudices lay your peace of mind 
open to a thousand chances against which you can¬ 
not provide. Prejudices fill your lives with little 
stings and invite a myriad trifling frets and 
worries. 

We have gone far toward overcoming our prej- 


OVERCOMING OUR PREJUDICES 151 


udices when we recognize how unreasonable they 
are likely to be, and how hurtful. Then the will 
power must come in. Then we must determine to 
get close to the object of our prejudice, and to learn 
the full truth about it. The sooner we do this, the 
better; prejudices toughen quickly, and the longer 
we cherish them the harder they are to uproot. 

Of course we may find that our prejudice is 
justified; we may discover that the thing we dis¬ 
like is really hurtful, the person really deserving 
of scorn. If that is the case, we are no worse off 
than before, and we are far more reasonable. In¬ 
deed, this understanding of the matter may enable 
us to remedy it, to remove our prejudice by reform¬ 
ing the object of it. That is the best of all ways 
to overcome a prejudice which has proved to be 
well grounded. 

This task of getting close to people whom we do 
not like is hard for most of us because it requires 
so much imagination. We must put ourselves in 
their places, by the exercise of a delicate, sympa¬ 
thetic, and persevering fancy, before we can hope 
to understand them. The story of the rich woman 
who, when she learned that certain poor people 
could not get enough bread, asked impatiently, 
(i Then why don’t they live on cake ? ” does not 
greatly exaggerate the difficulty many have in com¬ 
prehending the lot of others. It is indeed hard 
for one who has always slept on a soft bed to guess 
at the experience of sleeping on bare boards. It 


152 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


needs a loving insight for one who has never been 
seriously ill, or never has committed a grievous sin. 
to put himself in the place of a lifelong invalid or 
one who has fallen under sore temptation. These 
things are hard, hut they are not impossible, and 
they are gloriously worth doing. 

It is just such work that brings us into genuine 
fellowship with the Saviour. How could He, the 
sinless one, not only avoid prejudice against the 
harlots and extortioners of His day, but even get 
so close to them as to draw them up into His own 
beautiful living? It was not through any senti¬ 
mental blindness to evil, any weak complaisance, 
any cowardly conformity—far from that. It was 
simply because His great love made Him greatly 
understanding. His great love gave Him wonder¬ 
ful insight. Thus it was that He, the sinless, was 
tempted in all points as the most sinful are tempted, 
and by sympathy could help them. The more 
closely we live with Him, the more of this tender 
and yet powerful imagination will be ours, through 
love. 

“ Judge not ” is one of His most necessary in¬ 
junctions ; “ judge not, that ye be not judged.” We 
forget that every prejudice is a judgment, and the 
most miserable of all judgments, a snap judgment, 
a judgment in the absence of the defendant and his 
advocate and before the evidence is all in, perhaps 
before any evidence is in. 

There is a Judge that sits in judgment over all 


OVERCOMING OUR PREJUDICES 153 


such injustices. Some day He will condemn our 
prejudices as severely and justly as our sins. Every 
day that we allow them, and do not combat them 
in Christ’s spirit and with His power, we heap up 
condemnation for ourselves. “ Judge” is an hon¬ 
ourable title, and every Christian may sit upon the 
supreme bench of brotherly and winsome justice; 
but “ pre-Judge ” is a title of dishonour. If any of 
us have deserved it, let us get rid of it forever. 


XXXIII 


FACIXG A HARD TASK 


O UR faces have much to do with our con¬ 
duct, and our conduct with our faces. 
The Chinese are not far wrong in the em¬ 
phasis they place on “ making face,” “ saving face,” 
or “ losing face.” When we speak of “ facing a 
hard task ” the phrase has a literal as well as a 
metaphorical meaning. Let us consider a few of 
the literal aspects of this facing of our work. Let 
us view our task in connection with the various 
features of our face. 

The very first injunction, when a hard task is 
to he faced, may seem strange: Face it with a grin! 
Observe that this is not saying, “ Face it with a 
smile.” It may he too difficult and distasteful for 
that, hut any one can manage a grin. That is, be 
cheerful about it. You might just as well. Re¬ 
gard it in the light of a game, say a football game. 
That is hard enough: sawing wood is nothing to it; 
but most players contrive to go into a game with 
a grin, however set and sardonic. Look ahead to 
the victory. You are going to pull through on top. 
You are going to feel mighty good about it after 

it is done. Yes, you can face it with a grin. 

154 


FACING A HARD TASK 


155 


Then, back of the grin, Face it with clinched 
teeth! Hard tasks need bard grit. Tbeir happy 
termination calls for determination. They are 
severe, hnt persevere! Some way, firm-set teeth 
mean firm-set muscles. Some way, a clinched jaw 
clinches the soul. If you say to yourself, “ I will,” 
and keep on saying it, the will is pretty likely to 
become the deed. It is not for nothing that the 
bulldog has the most decided mouth of all the 
canines: he has the most decided character. You 
need not make a bulldog of yourself, but it is de¬ 
cidedly well to get a bulldog grip on your work. 

For another feature, seemingly far removed from 
the point but really very close to it, Face your task 
ivith listening ears! To return to our metaphor of 
a game, you know how much of football success de¬ 
pends on hearing and heeding the coach’s advice 
and listening tensely for the captain’s cryptic num¬ 
bers. You will never get through a hard task as 
you should if you do not listen to others who have 
done hard things. Get their experience. You can 
get it through conversation, through books, through 
lectures and sermons. It is only the fool that 
scorns good advice and lightly faces his task with 
cotton in his ears. 

Next consider the nose. You think that has 
nothing to do with facing a hard task? You are 
in error. For every piece of difficult labour has 
its own fragrance ; and it makes all the difference 
in the world if you sniff its lovely aroma eagerly, 


156 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


or hold your nos© as if you were in the Chicago 
stock yards. It is the fragrance of the fresh morn¬ 
ing air blowing over the awakening fields. It is 
the fragrance of boundless prairies, the tang of 
the adventurous ocean. Tasks have different fra¬ 
grances, some of the violet, some of the lily, some 
of the rose, some of bold spruces and hardy pines. 
The fragrance of a task is its grace, and makes us 
gracious toward it. Yes, our noses have much to 
do with the proper facing of hard tasks. 

Further, Face your tasks with praying lips! It 
is sad work attempting a difficult enterprise alone; 
it is easy and delightful if our all-loving, all-wise, 
and all-powerful Partner engages with us. Said a 
mournful widow once, most pathetically, “ Now I 
have no one to ask, ‘ Would you?'” But she did 
have some one to ask, “ Would you ? ” The habit 
—which she indeed had if ever a woman had—of 
talking matters over with the Father and Elder 
Brother is the true joy and strength of comrade¬ 
ship. If we face our hard tasks with praying lips, 
they are already half accomplished. We can 
readily see through them, we can bravely get 
through them, if we pray through them. 

And if we face our tasks with praying lips, it 
will not be long before we face them with a singing 
mouth. The cheerful grin with which we started 
will burst into a happy smile. Our songs will 
testify to our serenity. It is glorious to sing at 
one’s tasks. We do not do it unless the work is 


FACING A HARD TASK 


157 


going well, and if we do it the work goes better 
still. A singing workman needs no other letter of 
commendation. The tools of a singing workman 
are always sharp, his hands are always quick. This 
is a matter not taught in the technical schools, hut 
it is an essential of true technique. The employer, 
too, can sing when his workmen face their task with 
singing mouths. 

One feature remains: Face your task with 
lighted eyes! That is what will happen surely if 
you have already faced your task in the way de¬ 
scribed. Eyes aglow with the light of victory. 
Eyes shining with the joy of full accomplishment. 
Eyes that gleam with the vision of larger tasks to 
come. 

“ Are his eyes lighted, or are they dull % ” The 
answer to that question will tell all that one needs 
to know about a workman. Of men in mass, the 
answer to that question will condemn or exalt a 
labour system, a social order. Wherever men face 
their tasks with dull eyes something is fatally 
wrong with the men themselves, with their employ¬ 
ers, or with both. For the right work, pursued 
with the right spirit under right conditions, lights 
such a flame in human eyes that even the angels 
look upon it with a thrill. 


XXXIV 


WHEN PEOPLE TOOK TIME EOR REAL 
LETTER WRITING 

f ■""A HE art of letter writing is not altogether 
lost to the modern world. One illustra- 
JL tion of it is the remarkable letter written 
by Theodore Roosevelt describing his visits in 
Europe after his famous hunting trip in Africa. 
That letter made a good-sized book, and is one of 
the most brilliant pieces of writing in American 
literature, yet we may be sure that it was dashed 
off with characteristic Roosevelt vim and zest. 

As a whole, however, in spite of notable excep¬ 
tions, our modern letter writing is telegraphic in 
its brevity and more than telephonic in its curtness. 
We do not write letters, we send picture post-cards. 
Indeed, it has come to be quite the fashion—and a 
most silly and spendthrift fashion it is—to impress 
our business vigour upon correspondents by the use 
of the telegraph for quite ordinary business com¬ 
munications. 

In the old days they knew better. They knew 

that a well-written letter is an event. It expresses 

personality in a more memorable way than mere 

interviews. This is because the letter is read more 

158 



TIME FOR REAL LETTER WRITING 159 


slowly than we listen to speech, and often it is read 
over and over. It may he read to others, and so 
its influence may he greatly extended. When I was 
a hoy I often attended groups of my townsfolk that 
gathered to listen to the prodigiously long hut 
vastly informing and entertaining letters from 
Europe written by an old-fashioned lady from our 
Ohio town who had a fondness alike for travel and 
for letter writing. Those letters were read in a 
number of communities and were printed in the 
papers. Such epistles are seldom written to-day. 

Did you ever read the letter written by George 
Crahb to Edmund Burke soliciting financial aid? 
It is one of the most remarkable begging letters 
ever composed. It is not far from three thousand 
words long, and testifies to equal leisure in the 
author and the recipient. It is so beautifully 
phrased as to he the best possible witness to the 
ability and literary character of the writer, and its 
appeal is made with charming dignity and manli¬ 
ness. Begging by mail is said to have become a 
science to-day, hut its practitioners have much to 
learn from this writer of a century and a half ago. 

Wonderful letters were written by the wife of 
Thomas Carlyle, and one of the most remarkable, 
considering who wrote it and that it was written 
to her irascible husband, is her missive about a 
pestiferous dog that would hark, and how she pro¬ 
cured the silencing of the cur: “ ‘ Bow-wow-wow ? 
roared the dog, and dashed the cup of fame from 


160 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


my brow. 1 Bow-wow-wow ’ again, till the whole 
universe seemed turned into one great dog kennel! 
I bid my face in my bands and groaned inwardly. 
1 Ob, destiny accursed! Wbat use of scrubbing and 
sorting ? All this availetb me nothing, so long as 
the dog sitteth at the washerwoman’s gate! ’ ” All 
this play over wbat must have been a real torture. 

Would that every son might read Thomas Car¬ 
lyle’s tender letter to his old mother just before her 
death: “ I am now myself grown old, and have had 
various things to do and suffer for so many years; 
but there is nothing I have had to be so much thank¬ 
ful for as the mother I had.” Most sons think they 
are too busy to write such letters to their mothers. 

If any one wishes to know what religion can do 
to sustain one in the most distressing circumstances, 
let him read Charles Lamb’s letter to Coleridge 
written soon after his beloved sister Mary had, in 
a fit of sudden insanity (and Charles himself had 
been in a madhouse) killed her dearly loved mother 
and wounded her beloved father. “ Is it folly or 
sin in me,” asks poor Lamb, “ to say that it was a 
religious principle that most supported me ? ” 

If any one wants to know how a man can lavish 
himself upon his friends, let him read the many 
long letters by Charles Dickens preserved for us 
in Forster’s biography. With what unstinted gen¬ 
erosity the great novelist bestowed upon them valu¬ 
able copy and priceless time and the overflow of 
his buoyant spirits! 


TIME FOR REAL LETTER WRITING 161 


The masters of English letter writing, such as 
Walpole, Lamb, Thackeray, Lady Mary Montagu, 
FitzGerald, Haydon, Coleridge, and Stevenson, each 
has his excellency, each teaches a lesson to our heed¬ 
less, over-busy, and unsympathetic days. No letter 
writer of them all, however, equals Paul. What 
tenderness in his epistles, what eloquence, what 
profundity of wisdom, what convincing floods of 
logic! For a model of letter writing we cannot do 
better than to turn to this apostle, and imitate as 
best we can his thoughtfulness, his self-giving, his 
vigour, his courage, and his devotion. 


XXXV 


YOUR OWN SLOGANS 

S LOGANS have always been powerful in the 
history of nations. From Cato’s (< Delenda 
est Carthago ” “ Carthage must be de¬ 
stroyed !” down to u They shall not pass! ” of the 
World War, these battle cries have been effective 
for pulling down or for setting up. We remember 
Franklin’s a We must all hang together, or as¬ 
suredly we shall all hang separately ”; and Luther’s 
“ Here I stand; I can do no otherwise”; and Web¬ 
ster’s “ Liberty and Union, now and forever, one 
and inseparable ”; and Lincoln’s plea for u a gov¬ 
ernment of the people, by the people, for the peo¬ 
ple.” “ Millions for defense, but not one cent for 
tribute! ” “ England expects every man to do his 

duty!” “ Fifty-four forty or fight!” Slogans 
like these have made history. Some of them are 
still making history. 

In civil life slogans have been quite as useful as 
in days of war. They have played a mighty part 
in politics, as “ Tippecanoe and Tyler, too ” bears 
witness, and William Jennings Bryan’s famous cry 
that humanity must not be crucified on a cross of 
gold. 

At nearly every turn in human thought or action 

162 


YOUR OWN SLOGANS 


163 


the way is marked by a slogan: “ Pike’s Peak or 
bust! ” “ Back to the land! ” “ Efficiency! ” “A 
living wage!” “From each according to his 
ability, to each according to his need.” We shall 
not soon forget Charles Wagner’s insistence on “ the 
simple life ” and Roosevelt’s vigourous emphasis of 
“ the strenuous life.” Whoever has been able to 
pack a social theory into a taking phrase has done 
much to move men his way. 

Now the value of a slogan is as great in a private 
life as in the larger life of the public. Our read¬ 
ers have probably forgotten those oblong little mot¬ 
toes, white letters on a black background, “ Do 
It Now!” Twenty years ago this motto stared 
at one from thousands of business desks; doubtless 
it pulled thousands of business men out of the 
slough of endless procrastination. It did that for 
the writer, and he keeps the motto still on his desk 
at home. 

Of similar purport are the hortatory rhymes that 
stick in one’s memory, such as the following couplet 
which we have carried over from boyhood: 

" Lose this day loitering, ’twill be the same story 
To-morrow, and the next more dilatory.” 

The makers of proverbs, those unknown bene¬ 
factors and leaders of the human race, often used 
this powerful aid of rhyme, as in the alluring 
maxim, 

“ Early to bed and early to rise, 

Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” 


164 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


But proverbs without number have relied on tlie 
briefer and manlier prose. “ God helps them that 
help themselves/’ for example, has put a stouter 
backbone into millions of mortals. “ Many littles 
make a mickle ” has induced millions to practise 
fundamental thrift. 

There is a reason for the power of slogans, and 
that reason is the economy of attention and of 
memory. This is the reason that first pointed an 
arrow, in order that the energy of the taut bow¬ 
string might be focused upon a single vital spot. 
It is the reason for a burning-glass, the reason for 
a telescope and a microscope, bringing all the rays 
of a light to one fiery or illuminating point. A 
slogan does exactly this for a mind and a soul. 

And since slogans are thus useful, let every man 
employ them in the direction of his own life. In 
no easier and surer way can he guide his course to 
the desired haven. He can set up his own light¬ 
houses and fasten his own North Star in the sky. 

Some, who are expert in words, will be interested 
in fashioning their own slogans, while others will 
be content with the slogans of others. Discovering 
and adopting them will suffice for originality. 

The writer, for example, once read a very noble 
article on the joy of pleasing Christ—how few per¬ 
sons really set out to please our precious Redeemer, 
how glad He must be when His brothers care to 
give Him joy, how easily we can please Him, how 
glorious are the results of such an endeavour. The 


YOUR OWN SLOGANS 165 

I * 

article made such an impression that ever since one 
of the slogans of his life has been, “ Please 
Christ! ” It is a very intimate slogan, kept for 
the quiet hours of heart communion, but it cer¬ 
tainly has tided him over many a temptation and 
helped him accomplish many a difficult task. 

Edward Everett Hale once wrote a very inspir¬ 
ing book which should never grow obsolete, “ Ten 
Times One Is Ten.” It told about an earnest 
young fellow whose life motto was 

“ Look up and not down, 

Look forward and not back. 

Look out and not in, 

And lend a hand.” 

He died early, and ten of his friends decided 
that, in memory of him, each would try to live out 
those Wadsworth mottoes and get one other per¬ 
son to do the same. So the circle widened, at first 
slowly, very rapidly at last, until one happy day 
it was discovered that the entire population of the 
world was trying to live up to the slogan. That 
was the story, and ever since it was published the 
number has been growing of those who have made 
the Wadsworth mottoes their own. 

But, of course, the greatest reservoir of life’s 
slogans is the Bible, and in the Bible the greatest 
collection is the Sermon on the Mount. From the 
Psalms and Proverbs; from Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, 
and Jeremiah; from the four Gospels and the Acts; 
from the Epistles of James and First John; from 


166 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


Paul’s letters, every one of them, can be taken little 
guide-boards to all the complicated roads and foot¬ 
paths of life. Blessed is the man who scans them 
all and sets them all up in his memory. It is a 
wise plan to adopt one of these sacred slogans and 
live by it until it has become an ingrained part of 
character; and then another, and another. For a 
slogan’s work is not completed until it has buried 
itself so far in accomplishment that it has ceased 
to be a slogan and has become a life. 


XXXVI 

MIHD SWITCHES 


O XE of the most harmful habits that we can 
form is that of brooding over disagree¬ 
able matters, over slights, wrongs, fail¬ 
ures, griefs, losses, difficulties, mistakes, disappoint¬ 
ments. Such brooding is the dry rot of the soul. 
Quiet, silent, making no outward sign, it carries on 
its deadly work in secret, and at last inevitably 
shows itself outwardly, sometimes in the most 
tragic way. 

Such brooding as this destroys one’s happiness 
completely. The heavens are black, the earth is a 
prison, all food is poison, all life is misery. The 
darkest cynicism is the result, utter hatred, a heart 
turned to gall and wormwood. Monomania, in¬ 
sanity, suicide, murder, these are some of the re¬ 
sults of such persistent brooding. 

The habit is most easily formed. We drift into 
it before we know it. We are not often taught to 
recognize the deadly peril and to fight against it. 
The first injury finds us unprepared to turn it 
aside. We receive it into our soul and let it rankle. 
We do not know how to forget it. We do not want 

to forget it. We want to remember it and have 

167 


168 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


our revenge. When the revenge does not come, we 
begin to brood. 

When a railway freight train sets out, it is made 
up of many cars, and the cars have many different 
destinations. Its crew must know where the proper 
switches are and how to open and shut them. The 
crew must know how to uncouple cars, how to back 
the train upon a siding, how to leave there the cars 
it ought to leave there, couple up again, and move 
off blithely down the main track. The freight busi¬ 
ness is the main business of the railroads, and the 
switch is the main factor of the freight business. 
There would not be much railroading without it. 

Something precisely analogous to this must be 
done if one would use his mind to the best advan¬ 
tage, get the most out of it for himself, use it most 
helpfully for the rest of the world. There are mind 
switches that are just as effective as any switch of 
steel. It is easily possible to detaoh cars from a 
“ train of thought,” run them on to a siding, leave 
them there, and go whirling triumphantly down 
the road without them. It is all a matter of using 
the right keys and turning the right switches. The 
art of doing this is one of the most useful a man 
can learn. 

Many men who are most masterful in other di¬ 
rections are helpless as babies regarding their 
minds. Every thought that is suggested to them 
they feel obliged to entertain. Every poisonous 
idea must be cherished, once it gets in. All foul- 


MIND SWITCHES 


169 


nesses must accumulate there, for they know no 
method of cleansing the mind. Everywhere else 
they are resolute and aggressive; in their mental 
realm they are abject slaves to chance. The very 
conception of mind switches is foreign to them. 
They are not lords of their minds, hut their minds 
are lords of them. 

The wise man, on the contrary, owns his mind. 
He uses it as an instrument. He commands it, and 
it obeys. He does not allow it to become a burden, 
but forces it to carry his burdens. He couples 
them on and switches them off at his royal 
pleasure. 

The wise man drills his mind to hard tasks. He 
accustoms it to work. He does not ceaselessly cod¬ 
dle it with fiction, but holds it down regularly to 
substantial reading and useful studies. He does 
not skip the editorials in the newspapers, the solid 
articles in the magazines, the volumes of history 
and biography and thoughtful essays. He accus¬ 
toms his mind to ignore distractions and concen¬ 
trate itself upon matters best worth its while. 
Thus he trains his mind to take the switches. 

The wise man has the advantage of the railroads 
in that he can carry his switches with him. He 
always keeps at hand some pleasant and profitable 
thoughts to act as sidings on which he can switch 
his mind, and leave his burdens there. One man 
will meditate upon some happy event in his life, 
or some person whom he loves and who loves him. 


170 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


Another man will fall to thinking of some passage 
in the life of a Bible character, amplifying it with 
the exercise of a useful imagination. Others will 
have chains of Bible verses to repeat, or beautiful 
poems which they have stored away in memory. 
Others will fall to planning some advance in their 
work or some kindness they will carry out. Others 
will turn te praying, and will have a period of 
blessed communion with their Father in heaven. 

All these mind switches are in actual use by 
thousands of men. They are of very different ab¬ 
solute value, but they may all serve efficiently as 
switches. They all keep us from brooding over 
what it does no good to brood over. They all en¬ 
able us to drop our burdens of anger or sorrow or 
despair or worry, and go lightly on our way 
again. 

The art of mental discipline may be entered 
upon at any time, and any one may make a begin¬ 
ning. Whatever we do of this sort renders it easier 
to do more. Our power grows rapidly, delight¬ 
fully. At first we can get rid of our mind troubles 
only slowly and with considerable effort. Soon we 
become able to toss them aside instantly, decisively, 
and permanently. The switches work smoothly 
and swiftly. 

When a man has thus gained the mastery of his 
mind he employs this control not only for getting 
rid of the bad, but also still more usefully for the 
taking on of the good. Switches are for loading as 


MIND SWITCHES 


171 


well as for unloading. His “ trains of thought ” 
are always full of goodly merchandise, they are 
never “ empties.” They roll swiftly to their des¬ 
tination. They make rich profit for their owner, 
and they contribute to the welfare of mankind. 


XXXVII 

THE DUTY OF FEELING FIT 

¥ T is the fashion of many to disregard their 
feelings. Will power is everything with them. 
“ I work whether I feel like it or not,” “ I 
don’t let my emotions control me/’ “ I am bossing 
my life ”—that is what they virtually say. They 
may feel sick, hut they go to work just the same. 
They may dislike a certain person, but they treat 
him just as if he were a bosom friend. They force 
disagreeable undertakings through, regardless of 
their hatred of them. They are consistently mas¬ 
ters of themselves—or think they are. 

In reality this disregard of the feelings is a mere 
sham, and harmful as all shams are. It is a sham 
because the feelings have their way in spite of our 
wills. We may put through the task that we de¬ 
test, but it is not so well accomplished as it would 
be if we were enthusiastic for it. We may do our 
work while feeling sick, but the job is sickly. We 
may be polite to persons to whom our hearts do not 
go out, but we cannot deceive them into a real 
friendship. Nothing goes so swiftly against the 

current of the feelings as with it. 

172 





THE DUTY OF FEELING FIT 


173 


That is why every duty, if it is a genuine duty, 
includes the duty of feeling fit. To he “ fit ” is 
to he zealous, eager, alert. It is to go at the work 
with a zest, an appetite. It implies a leaping 
spirit, not a dragging one; mind muscles taut, not 
lax. Originally applied to physical readiness for 
athletic contests, “ fit ” is properly transferred to 
mental and spiritual activity. It is the swing of 
the victor, the promise and potency of achieve¬ 
ment. 

When thus we feel fit at the outset of a task there 
is no need of forcing ourselves, of urging ourselves 
forward. A light is in our eye, a song in our 
heart. Nothing could keep us from our work; it 
has become the most exhilarating enjoyment to us. 
It fits us like a well-made coat, no hitches, no sags, 
no wrinkles. We fit it, a round peg in a round 
hole. That is the way work goes when we feel fit, 
and of course the result is the very best we are 
capable of producing. 

Since this is the effect of feeling fit, it is mani¬ 
festly our duty to feel fit whenever it is our duty 
to do anything, and as far as it is possible for us 
to feel fit. 

Thus duty includes, very plainly, the duty of 
health. No one is doing his duty by his work if 
he does not bring to it all the physical ardour he 
is capable of obtaining by exercise, recreation, and 
sleep. Merely dragging through a task, with ach- 


174 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


ing head, frayed nerves, and exhausted vitality is 
not doing the work, but half doing it. Many a 
man with a well-trained, mature theological con¬ 
science has the health conscience of an infant. 
This is taking it for granted that bodily health has 
no theological standing, which is far from being 
the case. Our bodies are the temples of the Holy 
Spirit, and “ feeling fit ” physically is therefore 
very closely related to spiritual fitness. 

But one can feel fit so far as the body is con¬ 
cerned and not feel at all fit so far as the mind is 
concerned. Many seem to regard physical fitness 
as sufficient. “ Fine and fit 7 ’ they call themselves 
when they have no headache, when their muscles 
are responsive, when their circulation is good, and 
their nervous tension high. All the time they may 
be nursing some deadly worry or fatal grouch. All 
the time their efficiency may he sapped by some 
fear or ruined by some sin. After a while, of 
course, even their physical fitness may succumb to 
this insidious foe, hut not always. In the mean¬ 
time, they are in far worse plight than with a 
headache. 

Therefore it is our obvious duty to deliver our¬ 
selves to our tasks feeling mentally and spiritually 
fit. Not only must our eyes be clear, but our con¬ 
science as well. Not only must our heart beat 
regularly and strongly, but we must have a heart 
of love for all our fellows. Not only must our 
muscles be strong and our nerves steady, but our 


THE DUTY OF FEELING FIT 


175 


resolution must be strong and our soul must be calm 
and confident. 

If we do not put our spirit into our task, we 
contribute to it hardly enough to count. Even the 
sweeping of a room “ as for Thy laws ” makes the 
room “ and the action fine ”; while if our soul is 
not back of the broom, the room will look slovenly 
though we toil all day. 

Employers, alas, cannot estimate this element of 
service, the all-important element. They cannot 
put it down in their day-books and deduct for its 
lack or give a bonus for its presence when they fill 
the weekly pay envelope. They know well enough 
when it is not there or when it is there. They 
recognize it roughly, when they dare, by discharge 
or promotion; but their scales are clumsy indeed 
compared with God’s. 

The Great Employer weighs the spirit. He 
knows perfectly just how much zest we are putting 
into our work. He detects our inner reluctance, 
the halt of the soul, the limp of the mind. His pay¬ 
ments, of our satisfaction, of our power, of his ap¬ 
proval, of eternal reward, are in exact proportion 
to our hearty purpose. When our souls are “ fine 
and fit,” our spiritual pay envelopes bulge out with 
fatness. 

It is with reference to this Over-Employer, after 
all, that every wise worker will labour, rather than 
merely with reference to his very inadequate em¬ 
ployer on earth. He will refer his toil to the 


176 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


divine standards, which are spiritual standards. 
And he will find his true pay not in material money 
hut in the only substantial and enduring salary, the 
coin of the hank of heaven. 


XXXVIII 


SPEAKING APPRECIATIVELY 
TPRECIATE ” comes from two Latin 



words which mean to put a price on a 
thing, that is, to estimate its value. In 


the United States we have added a meaning to the 
word and use it as the opposite of depreciate, that 
is, to raise the value of a thing. Finally, we speak 
of appreciating a thing in the sense of expressing 
our regard for it. 

To appreciate a person, therefore, is: (1) To 
estimate his value; (2) to express his value; and 
(3) to increase his value. Speaking appreciatively 
is to do any or all these things for a man by our 
words. 

Of the three, merely estimating the value of a 
person is the least ‘ useful, though many seem to 
think it the most important. Many do not attempt 
the other two forms of appreciation, but think they 
are showing their skill and their acuteness if they 
weigh all their friends and acquaintances on the 
accurate scales of their intellects. 

Now most of us know ourselves all too well. We 
are thoroughly familiar with our faults, and we are 
probably conceited regarding our good looks or our 


177 


178 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


better qualities. We can, if we choose, tell the 
most discerning judge many things about ourselves 
that he would never guess—better than he would 
conjecture, worse than he perceives. Most of us 
are sadly discouraged regarding ourselves. The 
last thing we want is a cold analysis of our char¬ 
acter, a ledger balance of our entire nature. 

But appreciating some one in the second sense 
has come to mean not expressing his value, whether 
good, bad, or indifferent, but bringing out the good 
points and making the most of them. When we 
speak appreciatively of a man we do not weigh his 
sins over against his virtues, but we seek out his 
virtues and hold them up to the light. 

That is a beautiful and noble thing to do, and 
few are they that do it. Most of us are keen as a 
hound on the scent of a foible, a fault, or a sin. 
We pounce on it with glee, we display it with 
gloating. We have sharp words and malicious 
words and ghoulishly merry words in which to set 
it out. But how many of us keep our zest and our 
bright language for the good qualities of those we 
meet ? 

Every one has a good side and a bad side. The 
good side may be very much smaller than the bad 
side, but it is there. And just as a diamond, how¬ 
ever small, is better worth finding than a mass of 
garbage however large, so the least excellency in a 
character is more eagerly to be sought than any 
fault or sin. 


SPEAKING APPRECIATIVELY 


179 


Simply by setting forth the best that is in men 
yon. can do them and all that hear you an inesti¬ 
mable service. It is like filling a room with flow¬ 
ers instead of decaying cabbages. Of course there 
are decaying cabbages in the world, and of course 
there are stupidities and errors and wickedness in 
the world; but when we can have the flowers, why 
flaunt the cabbages ? When it is possible without 
harm to ignore the baser side of human nature, 
why not rejoice in the nobler side? 

And if appreciative speaking in this sense is so 
blessed, how much more helpful is the third form 
of appreciation, the actual increasing of values! 
There is a praise that warms, and there is a praise 
that also educates and inspires. This constructive 
praise is the third form of appreciation. It not 
only sees the few excellencies and makes the most 
of them; it also sees the great possibilities, and sets 
us on the way toward them. 

Happy is the teacher, the parent, the employer, 
the friend, who knows how to use this kind of ap¬ 
preciation! The easiest way to correct a fault is 
to praise the corresponding virtue on its rare ap¬ 
pearances. If a boy often comes tardily to school, 
commend him with especial warmth when he comes 
promptly. If a workman is usually untidy, be 
hearty in your praise of him when he is neat. If 
a child is ordinarily selfish, be most cordial in 
recognition of any bit of unselfishness that you can 


180 THE ROMANCE QE RIGHT LIVING 


discover. Be on the keenest lookout for opportuni¬ 
ties for such constructive appreciations. 

This third form of appreciative speaking is not 
to he spoiled by admixture with the first form. 
You are not to say, “ You are usually, Tom, such 
a wretched speller that it is a rare pleasure to read 
this essay in which only two words are misspelled.” 
That would he judicial, but it would not be inspir¬ 
ing. The truly educative way of saying it is this: 
“ Tom, I am delighted! This essay is almost per¬ 
fect in spelling. I knew you wouldn’t let the dic¬ 
tionary get the better of you. You’ll be our cham¬ 
pion speller yet.” That is the kind of appreciation 
which increases values. 

Don’t he afraid of spoiling folks with praise. 
For every person whom commendation has made 
vainglorious there are a thousand persons whom the 
lack of praise has rendered sad and discouraged. 
Many a church is starving its pastor in the matter 
of grateful appreciation. Many a Sunday-school 
superintendent, many a Sunday-school teacher, is 
faint-hearted because he does not know that he has 
done any good; while as for unappreciated fathers 
and mothers, sisters and brothers and friends,—• 
yes, and employers and employees,—their name is 
legion. 

Praise is a most potent medicine, a most nutri¬ 
tious food. Alas, that we so often keep the bottle 
stopped, keep the cake in the closet! We kre too 
reserved, or we are too heedless, or we are too crit- 


SPEAKING APPRECIATIVELY 


181 


ical. Let us become bulls and not bears in the 
market of folks’ virtues. Let us bid up tbeir fine 
qualities. Let us advertise them to others and 
lavish praise upon themselves. Best of all, let us 
rejoice in our own hearts over every good we can 
discover in a fellow mortal, as if it were a pearl 
for our own treasure-house. For it all goes into 
the coffers of our King. 


XXXIX 


THE ART OF MAKING FRIENDS 


A FRIEND is one’s other self, therefore no 
selfish person can have a friend. To 
a friend we reveal ourselves as to our¬ 
selves; we trust a friend as we trust ourselves; 
rejoice in a friend’s welfare as in our own; work 
for a friend as we labour for our own interests. 
Obviously all this is impossible for a selfish man. 

Yet there is much pursuit of friendship in a 
selfish spirit: because we want to be entertained; 
because we want to be comforted and helped; 
because we want our goods enlarged or our happi¬ 
ness increased. All such aims defeat themselves. 
As well try to catch the sunshine that you may eat 
it, as seek to imprison friendship in any such carnal 
barriers. Friendship is all for giving and not at 
all for receiving; for that very reason the receipts 
from friendship are enormous. 

How, then, can we speak of the “ art ” of mak¬ 
ing friends ? Is it not the most artless and natural 
thing in the world ? Does not any artifice spoil it ? 
Assuredly; and yet all nature is built on art, that 
is, on a plan. We rightly name God the Infinite 
Artist. He does nothing haphazard or carelessly. 
A heedless instant at the heart of the universe 

would send the universe back to chaos. So let us 

182 


THE ART OF MAKING FRIENDS 183 


not expect this loveliest thing that God has made, 
our human friendship, to be without art. We must 
plan for it, work it out, cherish it with a fixed and 
delicate purpose. 

Do we think enough about our friendships ? Do 
we design them, or leave them wholly to chance? 
Good things do not happen, and it is no wonder 
that so many lives are friendless, since they do not 
go out after friends. That is not the way an or¬ 
dered universe produces its miracles of use and 
beauty. If we want a friend, we must put at least 
as much thought into the pursuit as into the en¬ 
deavour after beefsteak. 

This does not mean that we are to make a diffi¬ 
cult thing out of friendship. Friendship is the 
easiest thing in the world. It need not require 
much time—or, it may require all the time we have. 
Whichever it is, it will he the natural, the inevi¬ 
table way of spending our time, not the hard way. 
The ends of friendship may he met perfectly by a 
bright nod, our soul in our eyes. Just a cheery 
word tossed across a full sidewalk may perpetuate 
friendship. A scanty post-card may carry friend¬ 
ship across a continent. The demands of friend¬ 
ship need daunt no one. Friends do not count 
words or weigh gifts or estimate times. 

But, on the other hand—and this is the real joy 
of friendship'—it may take all our time and all our 
strength and all our possessions. It is only when 
these are surely cast into the balances of friendship 




184 THE ROMANCE OP RIGHT LIVING 


that a wisp of time or a snatch of a sentence will 
suffice. Friendship’s bank must be full, though our 
checks upon it are small. It is enough to know 
that it is there, and at our happy disposal. 

The art of friendship, then, does not lie in our 
face or in our hands, in anything we say or do, 
but in the leaning of our soul toward our friend. 
If we know how to love unselfishly, we have mas¬ 
tered the art of friendship. Not that friendship 
is dumb; love will find words. Not that friend¬ 
ship is inactive; love will compel to deeds. We 
have just this thing to see to, if we would know the 
joys of friendship, this one thing, unselfish love. 

Is any one reading these words who lacks friends 
and yet is conscious of love? Perhaps you love 
others deeply—men and women and little children 
—but cannot count them your friends. That is pos¬ 
sible, with a certain kind of love. 

There are two Greek words for love, both of them 
found in the New Testament, and we have only a 
single word to translate them. One signifies love 
of the heart; the other, love of the soul. The first 
is the love of instinct, the second the love of reason. 
The first love perishes if it is not returned, the sec¬ 
ond may be all the stronger when it is not returned. 
The first may be called affection, the second de¬ 
serves to be called friendship. 

Now if you lack friendship, it may be because 
you have only the first kind of love. The art of 
friendship involves being a friend, but not neces- 


THE ART OF MAKING FRIENDS 185 


f 

sarily having a friend. Friendship can do without 
a friend. Christ was a friend to all men, His en¬ 
tire being and all His life pulsated with friendship; 
yet what a paltry handful of friends He had! 
“ Ye are my friends/ 7 He said, “ if ye do the things 
which I command you. 77 Hot many rose to that 
high qualification. 

In short, friendship is a glorious independence. 
Friendship so exalts the soul with love that it pos¬ 
sesses all things—the world, life, death, things 
present, things to come—because friendship allies 
the soul to Christ who possesses all things. Having 
friends is more or less accidental. It depends on 
time and place, on mood and fancy, on the chance 
of birth and breeding. But being a friend is no 
accident, and is wholly within one’s power. Hot 
all the whims and passions of the world can destroy 
the friendly attitude of a loving soul. 

This is the victorious friendship of the cross. 
This is the sacrificial friendship which, thus lifted 
up, is drawing all men to itself. Let us gladly 
imitate it in our own lives, through the grace of 
the Divine Friend. Let us seek the spirit of friend¬ 
ship, knowing that it is its own reward. Let us 
plan to he friends, take time to he friends, spend 
thought and pains upon our friendship. And let 
us rejoice when we find our friendship costing us 
something, for then we may he entering the fellow¬ 
ship of the cross. 




XL 









KNOWING WHEN WE HAVE AEEIVED 


D ISCONTENT is often exalted into a vir¬ 
tue. There is much talk about “ divine 
discontent.” “ Are you entirely satisfied 
with your salary of fifty dollars a week ? ” a famous 
newspaper publisher is said to have asked one of 
his editors. “ Entirely, sir,” was the answer. “ I 
want no one on my staff who is entirely satisfied 
with fifty dollars a week,” was the curt reply; and 
the story has been related with high approval. 
“ That’s the way to talk! ” says the successful busi¬ 
ness man. “ Contented ? Only putty men are con¬ 
tented. A man of push never has enough.” 

On the other hand, the world is full of moralists 
who preach content with one’s lot, whatever it may 
be. They urge a leveling doctrine. “ The same 
sky,” they insist, a arches over the rich man’s park 
and the poor man’s tiny back yard. What does a 
rich man get out of his millions ? Only a roof over 
his head, clothes to wear, and three meals a day. 
If you have these, you are as well off as he. Why 
seek for more ? Be content with what you have.” 
Both advisers may be right, and both may be 

lamentably wrong. There are laudable and essen- 

186 



KNOWING WHEN WE HAVE ARRIVED 187 


tial ambitions, but there are also ambitions that cor¬ 
rode, that drag down and destroy. There is a con¬ 
tentment that means peace not disassociated with 
progress, and there is a contentment that means 
stagnation or retrogression. Neither contentment 
nor discontent is to be condemned or approved with¬ 
out careful qualifications. 

It is the part of a wise man to be discontented 
enough to get a home, but contented enough to live 
in it after he has got it. In the World War we 
heard much about advances, but after every ad¬ 
vance we heard of a pause for “ the consolidation 
of positions.” Big guns had to be brought up, rail¬ 
ways had to be extended in order that supplies 
might be forwarded, trenches had to be dug, and 
defences erected. A campaign that planned only 
advances would mean defeat before it had gone half¬ 
way. A shrewd general, having made his gains, 
knows that his next task is to hold them. 

When a cup is full, further pouring into it only 
spoils the tablecloth. The next thing to do with 
a full cup is to drink its contents. Many keep on 
pouring into the cup of life, endlessly pouring, 
never stopping to enjoy it. 

This is a common experience in the matter of 
money-making. “ When I get twenty thousand dol¬ 
lars, I shall have enough,” says the young man. A 
few years later, having gained his twenty thousand 
dollars, he has advanced his goal to thirty thousand. 
“ When I get that much,” he says, “ I’ll retire.” 


188 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


But year after year sees his hoard increase, and his 
goal moved ever farther ahead. u Man never is, 
but always to be blest.” The men who have “ made 
their pile,” and know it, are the rare exceptions. 

The same is true in the matter of fame. The 
ambition that would be quite satisfied with a city 
office attains it, and instantly swells to State di¬ 
mensions. The eminence that seemed to touch the 
skies as we looked up at it from the valley, is found, 
on ascending it, to be only the foothill of a much 
higher mountain, which, in its turn must be climbed. 
The ultimate peak is seldom reached. 

It is good to have ambition; it is good, also, to 
know when that ambition has been attained. With¬ 
out the latter knowledge life is one long dissatisfac¬ 
tion, a constant reaching after something ahead. 
There is no pleasure in achievement; what we have 
not and what we are not, forever overshadow what 
we have and are. 

Especially is this true of those with sensitive 
consciences and high ideals. They are likely to 
condemn themselves when they have every right to 
congratulate themselves. They spend their days in 
bewailing the ideals they have not attained, alto¬ 
gether forgetting the ideals they have attained most 
successfully. They make themselves miserable all 
along life’s journey by not realizing that they have 
already arrived. 

It is a journey, to be sure, this life of ours. The 
goal of yesterday is not, must not be, the goal of 


KNOWING WHEN WE HAVE ARRIVED 189 

to-day. “ We must onward still and upward who 
would keep abreast of truth.” In that sense life is 
a series of dissatisfactions, of unattained ambition. 

But this journey is one of stages, and each stage 
marks an achievement. Every day’s end finds us 
at an inn, with the lights shining, the fire burning 
brightly, the landlord giving cheery welcome, and 
the table spread with a goodly meal. We have 
earned the right to our bed, and to a night’s rest 
and peace. Thus we can travel on happily and 
quite indefinitely, while a forced journey, day and 
night, ever driving on without a rest, wears us out 
before we have half reached our destination. 

No one of us has made all the friends he intends 
to make, but it is well for us to stop and rejoice in 
the friendships we have formed, and take cogni¬ 
zance of the fact that we have reached many of the 
blessed havens of friendship. None of us has done 
so much good work in the world as he hopes to do, 
but that is no reason why we should not hug to our 
hearts the proud assurance that we have done a lot 
of good work. Not a soul of us has attained all the 
heights of noble character that he purposes to 
reach, but we have climbed part way up, and we 
are foolish if we do not now and then look out with 
satisfaction over the widening prospect. We do 
not know so much of God as we long to know, but 
we shall come to live ever more intimately and bless¬ 
edly with Him if now and then we pause to real¬ 
ize that God is growing constantly more precious 


190 THE ROMANCE OF RIGHT LIVING 


to us, and that our life is really drawing nearer to 
Him as the years go by. 

If discontent is a stimulus, contentment is a 
strength, and we cannot go far without both. 


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many other stirring volumes, Dr. Conwell has just added 
another made up of some of his choicest addresses. Dr. 
Conwell speaks, as he has always spoken, out of the ex¬ 
perimental knowledge and practical wisdom of a man, who 
having long faced the stark realities of life, has been 
exalted thereby. 

GAIUS GLENN ATKINS , D.D. 

Minister of the First Congregational Church, 

Detroit, Michigan. 

The Undiscovered Country $1.50. 

A gToup of addresses marked by distinction of style 
and originality of approach. The title discourse furnishes 
a central theme to which those following stand in rela¬ 
tion. Dr. Atkins’ work, throughout, is marked by clarity 
.of presentation, polished diction and forceful phrasing. 











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